Good afternoon. News from last week that the government intends to set up an anti-kidnapping unit to deal with the long-running problem of kidnappings will naturally arouse scepticism. President Filipe Nyusi’s government also planned to establish an anti-kidnapping unit, but never did. Failure to act on kidnappings probably cost interior minister Arsenia Massingue her job in 2023. Then, as now, the government intended to ask foreign countries with more expertise of investigating organised crime for help, but such help never materialised. Getting assistance from South Africa might be difficult, owing to strained relations with the country’s law enforcement agencies, but Portugal is usually willing to help, and has the resources.
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Tom Gould
Zitamar News
Since 2011 there have been 205 kidnapping crimes registered, according to the police. In the majority of cases, the victim’s family pay the ransom. On the occasions when police have managed to make arrests, they have only caught minor players like people assigned to guard hostages or feed them, never anyone in charge. Since the death in prison of the notorious criminal Nini Satar last month, there have not been any more kidnappings, adding to the suspicion that he was the ringleader. But even if that is true, any pause is likely to only be temporary. Kidnapping remains good business.
