18-year-old Safiyah Firoz is the subject of an intensive, cross-national search after being kidnapped in Mozambique this week.
Student Safiyah Firoz (18) kidnapped outside a university in Beira, Mozambique. There has been a series of kidnappings in the country over the past few years. @clubOmozambique @INTERPOL_HQ @SAPoliceService pic.twitter.com/KT04aXNdca
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) May 19, 2022
UPDATE: According to the latest reports from crime expert Yusuf Abramjee, Firoz, after weeks of being held hostage, was freed and reunited with her family. It remains unclear, at this time, if any ransom fee was paid. See tweet update below.
The victim has been freed and is reunited with her family. https://t.co/Aj5flcC4i8
— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) June 9, 2022
What happened to Safiyah Firoz?
Details about the student’s disappearance are still very sketchy at this time. However, alert signals were sent out across Southern Africa after the 18-year-old was abducted outside a tertiary institution in Beira, Mozambique, sometime this week.
The 18-year-old’s whereabouts were unknown at the time this article was published. Moreover, it’s unclear if her family has been contacted by her abductors.
The investigation, it’s believed, is being handled by the Mozambican National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC).
While leads have yet to develop in the search for Firoz, SERNIC authorities will hope to find helpful information on her whereabouts when they question the three men believed to be heads of a kidnapping syndicate responsible for a spate of abductions in the region.
Early intelligence gathered by the neighbouring country’s task force suggests that the syndicate behind the increased kidnapping activity predominantly operates in the Beira and Zambezina provinces, and more often, business people and their relatives are the main targets.
“These three individuals indicted for various crimes have been arrested. The first was detained in Beira and two others in Zambezia province, as part of the investigations that the police had been carrying out since last year,” SERNIC spokesperson Alfeu Sitoe told reporters.
In the multidisciplinary raids that resulted in the key arrests, police seized an AK-47 assault rifle, rounds of live ammunition, and two vehicles believed to have been used in the kidnappings, Club of Mozambique reports.
This is a developing story.
