Africa-Press – Mozambique. A Portuguese-Mozambican businessman was shot and wounded by unknown assailants who tried to kidnap him in the centre of Maputo on Monday. The kidnapping was prevented by members of the public, who threw stones at the perpetrators, who then fled.
The Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) confirmed to Lusa on Wednesday that the Consulate General of Maputo is monitoring the case of the attempted kidnapping of a Portuguese-Mozambican citizen on Monday, the second such incident in the space of a month.
“The Consulate General in Maputo is monitoring the situation of the attempted kidnapping of a Portuguese-Mozambican citizen. The Mozambican authorities have taken charge of the incident,” an official MNE source said in response to questions from Lusa.
A Portuguese-Mozambican businessman was shot and wounded by unknown assailants who tried to kidnap him on Monday.
“Four men armed with a pistol and an AKM assault rifle tried to kidnap a shopkeeper in the city of Maputo early on Monday evening, but due to the victim’s resistance and the intervention of members of the public, he ended up shot in the leg,” police spokesperson in the Mozambican capital, Leonel Muchina, said.
The kidnapping was forestalled by members of the public, who threw stones at the perpetrators, who then fled, Muchina added.
“The businessman was taken to hospital,” the police say, adding that the attempted kidnapping took place moments after the trader left his textile store.
In another, similar, case, a group of three armed men kidnapped a 26-year-old Portuguese-Mozambican young woman at about 7:50 a.m. on the morning of November 1 as she left her home in Maputo for the gym, police spokesman Lionel Muchina told Lusa on the day of the kidnapping.
“The situation is being monitored through diplomatic and consular posts in Maputo, which are in contact with the family,” a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously told Lusa.
In this case, the young woman remains in captivity.
Last week, six people were arrested for their alleged participation in the attempted kidnapping of Mozambican businessman Juneid Lalgy on November 8, the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) previously said.
Sernic spokesperson in Maputo province, Henrique Mendes, told a press conference that the six men rammed Lalgy’s car in order to kidnap him.
“During this pursuit, the vehicle [of the alleged perpetrators of the kidnapping attempt] collided with a fixed obstacle somewhere in the Hanhane neighbourhood, and the victim managed to [escape and] arrive safely” at his business premises, Mendes said.
Juneid Lalgy is the owner of a transport company, with a sizeable fleet of trucks, and owner of the Black Bulls football club.
On the 17th of this month, another Mozambican businessman, this time linked to the automobile sector, was kidnapped by unknown men in the city of Maputo.
Some Mozambican cities, mainly the provincial capitals, have been hit since 2020 by a renewed wave of kidnappings, mainly targeting businesspeople or their family members.
In the face of this new wave of kidnappings, the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA), the country’s largest employers’ association, at the beginning of November demanded “more severe” prison sentences for kidnappers and “no payment of bail”.
“We understand that it is necessary to make profound changes, both in the PRM’s approach to this scourge, as well as in the current legal framework, constructing a more severe criminal framework and without the possibility of bail,” the CTA said in a note posted on social media, in reaction to the kidnapping of the young Portuguese-Mozambican woman on November 1.
Prime Minister of Mozambique, Adriano Maleiane, announced in parliament last May that the agents destined for a prospective special unit to combat kidnapping have already been selected.
According to figures presented by the prime minister, 28 cases of kidnapping have been registered since 2021, of which “15 have been fully clarified”.
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