
Maputo, 28 Aug (AIM) – Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) has arrested a couple, in Vieira neighbourhood, in the northern city of Nampula, for trying to sell three minors for purposes of human trafficking.
According to Henina Tsinine, the Nampula SERNIC spokesperson, two of the victims are children of the couple (who were not named) and the third was kidnapped in Natiquire neighbourhood.
Tsinine explained that they intended to sell each child for one million meticais (about 15,600 US dollars at the current exchange rate).
“We were able to ascertain that the children were being sold for one million meticais each”, she said. “In connection with the case, SERNIC also arrested a brother of the woman who orchestrated the crime. He is being held on the same charges”.
One of the detainees, who was a stepfather of the two children, confirmed the crime, claiming that his wife kidnapped a seven-year-old girl in Natiquire, while her parents were absent.
“When I returned home in the evening, I found my wife and the child. I asked her how she gets other people’s children here. She said she was tired of suffering and wanted to sell her. Then we went to my brother-in-law’s house”, he said.
He also said that his wife was still looking for potential clients, and “she would go from house to house, especially when she thought that such a house was sophisticated. When the house was sophisticated, she would say that they buy people.”
(AIM)
Ad/pf (252)