MAPUTO – Two women were kidnapped in broad daylight on Thursday. This as the number of abductions in Mozambique is escalating to crisis level. According to a report from the Independent Daily, an Asian female was the first to be taken at 15:00.
The woman is the wife of a businessman who owns an ice-making company. She was apparently seized outside her husband's factory by five men who were armed with AK-47s.
According to an eyewitness, “The woman was in the back seat of her car when they arrived and fired a shot into the air to intimidate her. But she refused to leave the vehicle”.
The gang then fired another warning shot, broke the car window, and dragged her out by force.
About an hour later, another woman, also the wife of a businessman, was kidnapped in the centre of the city, close to the well-known “Cruz Azul” private clinic. Again the criminals were armed with the same weapons.
Mozambique police spokesman,
Mr Arnaldo Chefo, said on Tuesday that a 35-year-old woman was kidnapped near the Portuguese School while she was taking her four-year-old to school. He said two suspects driving a Mazda grabbed her as she stopped nearby.
Witnesses say the abduction happened 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.
The family of a man who was taken on Monday night, who, according to police, is the son of the Nautilus Group's owner and has family in Nelspruit, has as yet not received a ransom demand.
Four abductors recently stopped a school bus and forced all the children out of it. They had a photo of a 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 project development director for Petromoc, Mr Tito Tezindi, pulled up at their exclusive private school, an unidentified vehicle deliberately bumped into them.
The children's driver jumped out to see what had happened, and as he did so, three armed men grabbed the youngest boy, Rudi (9), and fled. The kidnappers are demanding a ransom of
US$1 million. This came to light after Lowvelder first reported that super-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 this newspaper there had been an influx of families moving 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 with 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 US$300 000 to US$2 million.
He confirmed that as yet, no victims had been killed and no foreigners had been affected by the abductions.
