MAPUTO – A 35-year-old woman was kidnapped on Tuesday, and a man on Monday as kidnappings continue to escalate in Mozambique.
Mozambique police spokesman, Arnaldo Chefo, said the woman was kidnapped near the Portuguese School while she was taking her child to school. He said two suspects driving a Mazda vehicle grabbed her as she stopped near the school.
Witnesses say the kidnapping happened very quickly and, when one of the kidnappers assaulted the victim, she tried to scream for help but was quickly silenced as they held her at gunpoint
Family of the man who was kidnapped on Monday night – who according to police is the son of the Nautilus Group’s owner and who has family in Nelspruit -have still received no ransom demand as yet.
Last week, four kidnappers stopped a school bus and forced all the children off the bus. They had a picture of their nine-year-old boy, picked him out the crowd, grabbed him and vanished. His family is currently also awaiting a ransom request.
In a previous incident three weeks ago, when the luxury car carrying the sons of the director of project development for Petromoc, Mr Tito Tezindi, pulled up at their exclusive private school, an unidentified vehicle bumped into them diliberately.
The children's driver jumped out to see what had happened, and as he did, three armed men grabbed the youngest boy, Rudi (9), and fled. The kidnappers are demanding a ransom of one million US$. This came to light after Lowvelder first reported that ultra-rich families from Mozambique were seeking asylum in Nelspruit and purchasing properties in the area to relocate their families.
A local estate agent had told Lowvelder there had been an influx of families relocating to the city because of its close proximity to Maputo. He said most wealthy families were now relocating their wives and children to Nelspruit.
Chefo said police were making headway into new arrests that would shed more light on the situation. Mozambican journalist Mr William Mapote, who had been investigating and covering the kidnappings, said the abductors had demanded ransoms ranging from $300 000 to $500 000.
“We had a case in which a family paid two million US$ to get a relative back alive.” He said families did not want the police involved with the exchange of money. Another source who cannot be identified, told Lowvelder that Mozambican police apparently suspected the syndicates were tipped off by banking officials who told them who the wealthy families were.
Mapote said police had made arrests but that the masterminds behind the operations were still unknown.
He also claimed it was difficult to get victims or their families to come forward as they were threatened with their lives by the abductors if they reported the cases.
“To date no one has been killed.”
