|
|
Mozambique: Sena Line Saboteurs Arrested
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
24 January 2008
Posted to the web 24 January 2008
Maputo
The Mozambican police in the central town of Dondo have arrested four people accused of vandalizing the Sena railway line, that links the port city of Beira to the coal mines of Moatize, in the western province of Tete, reports Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
The four accused were identified as Francisco Limpo, 51, Nelito Francisco Simbe, 18, Filipe Caponda, 47 and Joao Ferreira de Barros, 31.
According to Mateus Mazive, of the Sofala provincial police command, the four accused cut and removed pieces of rail lines, installed by the publicly owned ports and rail company CFM, causing damages estimated at about 1.6 million meticais (64,000 US dollars).
The Sena line is still under complete reconstruction in some stretches and rehabilitation in some others. Much of the line was completely destroyed by the apartheid backed Renamo rebels during the war of destabilisation, and no trains have run from Beira to Moatize for two and a half decades.
Mazive said that these four are part of a large network of criminals, and the police are working to neutralise the other members of the group.
Railway lines have been subject to constant sabotage by gangs that sell rails and other metallic components to scrap metal merchants. A spokesperson for the private-led consortium, the Beira Railway Company (CFB), that holds the lease on the entire Beira rail system, said that the sabotage costs millions of dollars every year.
|
The director of the central regional division of CFM, Joaquim Verissimo, thanked the police for their prompt action, and urged all institutions and the public at large to denounce sabotage "because CFM belongs to the Mozambican state, and all that it produces is for the benefit of the entire people".
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
