LILONGWE, Malawi
Top Mozambican prosecutor on Wednesday formally acknowledged that the government is struggling to combat an increase in kidnappings owing to the involvement of some members of the police and judiciary.
Attorney General Americo Letela, who appeared in Mozambican parliament to explain the rising number of kidnappings, acknowledged that efforts to combat the crime are being thwarted because “some members of the country’s police force and magistrates were involved in the preparation, facilitation, and execution of kidnappings.”
Infiltration of the institutions of justice by criminal organizations and the weaknesses in the investigations are among the obstacles in the fight against kidnapping in the country, he added.
“There is the fact that the crime of kidnapping is part of organized crime, which tends to infiltrate the institutions of the administration of justice and others that intervene in preventing and combating it, to ensure its own impunity,” he said.
Mozambique and South Africa are the most affected by kidnapping in Southern Africa, Borges Nthamire, a consultant for the South African Institute for Security Studies (ISS), told Anadolu over the phone on Tuesday.
He said kidnapping for ransom has been prevalent in Mozambique for nearly two decades.
“However, because Mozambique police have been unable to combat the crime, kidnappers have become more brazen,” Nthamire said, accusing the country’s national criminal investigations service agents of being involved in the kidnapping.
He claimed that the victims, mostly Asian businessmen, are kidnapped in “broad daylight” for weeks or months before being released only after ransoms are paid.
“Victims are often tortured and sometimes killed if payments are overdue,” he said.
According to the Interior Ministry, the country has recorded at least 250 cases of kidnappings since 2011.
A few weeks ago, Interior Minister Paul Chachime told parliament that his ministry is working to “cleanse the police force of criminal agents who are part of the network facilitating kidnappings in the country.”
Since January 2024, he said, at least 514 disciplinary proceedings against police officers have been initiated, with at least 73 being expelled for crimes.
According to the Confederation of Mozambican Business Association (CTA), the country has been experiencing a wave of kidnappings since 2011, with the victims primarily being businesspeople of Asian descent.
Pedro Baltazar, head of the CTA’s security department, told Anadolu that over the last 12 years, at least 150 businesspeople have been kidnapped, forcing approximately 100 businesspeople of Asian origin to flee the country.
“Kidnappings have had a significant negative impact on the economy,” he said, suggesting that the government must make significant investments in defense and security forces to combat this crime, as well as form a specialist anti-kidnapping force within the police.
According to the Mozambican Financial Intelligence Office (GIFiM), the “kidnapping industry” has generated more than $33 million for criminals since 2014.
