A group of businessmen said during a press conference held in Beira, the second largest city in Mozambique, on Friday that they’re starting a protest against the wave of kidnappings, with a three-day shutdown of businesses to urge the government to protect the citizens.
Statistics showed that 100 people have been kidnapped in Maputo and 14 in Beira in the past two years.
“We want a city in Beira free from kidnappings, but also an entire Mozambique free from this type of crime,” said Zeyn Badati, a representative of the business community at the press conference.
Badati said that they are not intended to paralyze the economy with the action, but rather to demand that the Mozambican state fulfill its responsibility to protect the citizens.
“If the abductions go with impunity, we will meet again to decide on new collective forms of demonstration,” he said.
The high number of kidnappings has worsened the business environment, with many investors leaving the country and billions of meticais that would otherwise be invested in normal economy flowing into the industrialized organized crime, said Badati.
The demonstration called “Beira Anti-kidnapping Movement” is the second of its kind in the country, the first held in Maputo in 2013 that brought together thousands of protesters.
