Businessman Hayyum Ali Mamade was found dead on 26 December. He had been kidnapped on 14 December. His family were contacted and told he was ill and could be collected at a certain spot, but when the family arrived he was already dead. (Carta de Moçambique 27 Dec) A video of the 30 second armed kidnap is on https://bit.ly/Moz-kidnap.

Hayyum Ali Mamade ran the best ice cream shop in Maputo, Vanilla Gelado, and he was kidnapped when he was sitting in front of his recently opened branch in Matola. He also owned the Kids R Us shops in Maputo and Matola.

There were at least 12 kidnappings last year, and over 100 in the past decade. At least $35 mn in ransoms was paid last year, according to the Vice President of the Confederation of Mozambican Economic Associations (CTA), Prakash Prehlad.

Hayyum Ali Mamade's death is at least the fourth kidnapping related death. In 2013, a 13-year-old boy, Abdul Rashid, was murdered by kidnappers. In 2014 Dinis Silica, a judge appointed to investigate the kidnappings, was gunned down. In 2015 a bystander was killed in a gunfight between kidnappers and a security guard.

The economic impact is also clear. When I am in Maputo I often walk past the gutted and abandoned Andalucia Hotel; work never resumed after the 2012 kidnap of A. Cadire and G. Sattar of the Sonil group who were rehabilitating the hotel. Similarly Carlos Camurdine, kidnapped in 2019, moved to Lisbon where he bought a hotel.