Maputo — The police in the central Mozambican city of Beira have detained three Somalis and two Kenyans who are accused of recruiting young Mozambicans to joint the islamist terrorist groups operating in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
According to the spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic), Alfeu Sitoi, cited in Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", the members of the group, consisting of four men and one woman, supposedly led by a Somali named Ahmed Agjar, are facing charges of terrorism, people trafficking, possession of drugs, assisting illegal immigration, and forgery.
During the arrests, the police seized six Kenyan and five Somali passports, four other travel documents, four Kenyan and Somali identity cards, and 13 requests for asylum in Mozambique. Sernic suspects that all the identity documents are fake. Sitoi said they will all be analysed to check their authenticity.
All five suspects appear to have entered Mozambique illegally.
The authorities also seized a Honda Freed light vehicle, which Sernic believes was used to transport the terrorist recruits.
Sitoe said that a team including members of the police, the immigration service (Senami), and the State Security Service (SISE) has been working on the case, assessing the level of involvement of each of the five suspects.
