Mozambique’s Interior Minister Arsénia Massingue has said that Mozambique is to set up an anti-kidnapping task force to help stem the tide of kidnappings in the country.
Massingue was speaking on Wednesday at a ceremony to mark the 48th anniversary of the establishment of Mozambique’s police (PRM).
She said that Mozambique is working with international partners in the establishment of the task force. “We resorted to external partners to form the group very quickly in order to immediately speed up the prevention and combating of kidnappings.”
The minister said that a yet unspecified number of members of police had been selected to be part of the unit, adding that the process was taking long because the issue is sensitive.
This is not the first time that someone in the hierarchy of the Ministry of the Interior promises the establishment of an anti-kidnapping unit. In November 2021, PRM General-Commander Bernardino Rafael said the same thing.
Before the two, President Filipe Nyusi had told the Assembly of the Republic, Mozambique’s parliament, as far back as 2020, during his yearly address to the nation, that Mozambique would form an anti-kidnapping task force.
Two years later, he said that the anti-kidnapping unit was being established but could not be drawn on when the unit would be operational.
Comment
It is strange that in a country where the wave of kidnappings is in the region of hundreds, it is taking so long to establish an anti-kidnapping unit – the phenomenon of kidnappings for ransom in Mozambique started in 2008.
Kidnappings have become such a profitable business. The Confederation of Businesses Associations (CTA) says that so far kidnappers’ ill-gotten gains total $34 million, driving away investors to the detriment of the country’s economy.
So far, very few kidnapping cases have come to court. In most cases, the families of kidnapping victims pay the ransom to see their loved ones back in their midst. Even then, apparently they are made to pay a “daily freedom tax” to guarantee that they are not re-kidnapped.
It is not clear why an anti-kidnapping task force should be housed by the police. Constitutionally, the PRM does not investigate crime as it is a classic crime prevention police. It is rather strange because an anti-kidnapping task force is an intelligence unit with special operational capabilities.
The sensitivity alluded to by the minister refers to the fact that there are members of police and other law enforcement sectors linked to fighting the phenomenon involved in kidnappings: two members of police and two members of SERNIC (National Criminal Investigation Service) were charged with aiding and abetting kidnappings in 2022.
Thus, it remains to be seen how efficient the proposed task force will, as the involvement of law enforcement personnel in kidnappings weakens any strategy, tactics and trust within the law enforcement community.
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