Businessman kidnapped today in the center of Maputo

OR spokesperson for the Police Command of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in the city of Maputo, Leonel Machine, confirmed the kidnapping to the newspaper O country.

Leonel Machine advanced that authorities are on the ground investigating the case.

“We associateus to the National Criminal Investigation Service and the subsequent work is now underway, “he said. Leonel Machine, without going into details about the event.

The victim was questioned by a gunman on his way to a barbershop working in an office and residential building in central Maputo after getting out of the vehicle driven by someone else.

The man forced the businessman to get into a car in which three people were armed.

“A car came in direction at Avenida Salvador Allende and there were four occupants inside and one of them got out of the car and forced you into the car. The driver of the kidnapped tried to resist, but the criminals threatened to shoot, ”a witness told the country.

The newspaper says the businessman is Ismael forget and is connected to the group Uzeir Trade Center, based in Beira, capital of the province of Sofala, Central Mozambique.

Lusa was unable to obtain a reaction from the police to the news of the event.

The kidnapping occurs less than a week after the kidnapping in the city of Matola, from the Portuguese Jessica Piccolo, meanwhile released on Thursday

Jessica Pequeno, 27, was kidnapped on Monday and released by kidnappers Thursday night, a source close to the family told Lusa.

Contacted by Lusa, source of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) later postponed clarifications on the case.

The victim is the daughter of a couple who own the restaurant Burako da Velha, a family business of the Portuguese Dina Pequeno and Alberto Beto – where Jessica and her husband, Marco, a pastry chef, also work.

Since the beginning of 2020, the Mozambican authorities have recorded a total of 10 kidnappings, the victims of which are businessmen or their families.

In October, a group of entrepreneurs in the city of Beira, Sofala, center of Mozambique, paralyzed for three days, his activities in protest against the wave of kidnappings in the country.

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), the largest employers’ association in the country, has also called for a tough fight against this type of crime on several occasions and even Mozambique’s president Filipe Eyebrows, has already called for further measures.