Maputo — Mozambique's National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) has announced the detention last Thursday of a man wanted by the Angolan authorities for drug trafficking.
The man, who was not named by Sernic, is a 51 year old Angolan who was detained in Maputo after fleeing from Angola in September 2019.
In Angola, he had been serving a ten year jail sentence, imposed in 2017, for international drug trafficking.
Cited in Wednesday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais', Sernic said the detainee was carrying identification documents from several countries, including Mozambique, Brazil, Namibia and Seychelles, with different names and different photographs.
This implied that the Angolan could also be charged with the crime of falsification of documents.
Sernic said the case will now follow the necessary legal procedures for extradition to Angola.
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1101223E POLICE SHOOT DEAD TAXI DRIVER
Maputo, 27 Dec (AIM) - Members of the Mozambican police (PRM) shot dead a 24 year old motor-cycle taxi driver named Castigo Samuel, in the central city of Chimoio, merely because he did not obey a police command to stop.
One of Samuel's colleagues, cited by the independent television station, STV, and who requested anonymity, said "there were police agents on patrol. They were ordering motorbikes to stop, and demanding to see their drivers' documents. During this action, the police ordered the young man to stop. They ended up shooting him, and he lost his life in the provincial hospital'.
The spokesperson for the Manica Provincial Police Command, Mateus Mindu, confirmed the shooting, and said that Samuel had been mistaken for a member of a gang who had robbed a nearby home earlier in the day, and who were using a motorbike.
"We received a denunciation of a group that had just carried out a robbery', said Mindu. "They were associated with a group travelling on a motorbike who had stolen property such as wallets and cell phones in Trangapasso neighbourhood'.
Mindu said the provincial command has set up a team to establish the truth of the incident.
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1111223E NO BARRIERS TO FREE EXPORT OF PIGEON PEAS, SAYS CTA
Maputo, 27 Dec (AIM) - The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA) has confirmed that there is no barrier to the free export to India of Mozambican pigeon peas.
Pigeon peas are a type of lentil that is a key part of the Indian diet. Since India does not produce enough to meet its own requirements, it imports pigeon peas from Mozambique. The Indian government has made it clear that such imports are free of duties and quotas.
But obstacles have been created, apparently by companies trying to control the market - despite an explicit statement last week by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, that there are no limitations on the export of pigeon peas.
There have been contradictory statements issued about how much of this crop has been exported and how much is in storage. A CTA statement of Tuesday said that contacts with the ports of Beira and Nacala show that so far this year 200,000 tonnes of pigeon peas have been exported to India.
The CTA chairperson, Agostinho Vuma, urged all operators to export their stocks of pigeon peas. At a Maputo press conference on Tuesday, Vuma said "We want to explain that, contrary to what has been claimed there is no block on exporting pigeon peas in Mozambique'.
He pointed out that Tonela's dispatch instructed the customs service, with immediate effect, to ensure that all interested economic agents can freely export their pigeon peas without discrimination.
He added that the Mozambican farmers who grow pigeon peas are doing well out of these exports. The producer price for pigeon peas was just 12 meticais (about 19 US cents) a kilo at the start of the year, but then rose to 54 meticais a kilo - a rise of 350 per cent.
Pigeon peas, said Vuma, had become the main cash crop in Zambezia province, and the second main cash crop in Nampula. About a million producers grow this crop.
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"We urge the producers to make efforts to increase production and productivity, and improve the quality of their products, so as to ensure the effectiveness of this business, which is lucrative and beneficial for all those involved', said Vuma.
But two of the exporting companies are waging a bitter legal dispute, resulting in a court injunction that has prevented one of them from exporting.
The CTA says it has tried to bring the parties to the litigation together, and is optimistic that advances are being made to solve the problem definitively, and thus minimize any negative impact.
The CTA called on all the administrative authorities involved in the dispute to comply scrupulously with the decisions taken by Tonela, and by the Administrative Tribunal, in order to safeguard the interests of all those involved in the value chains of the production, sale and export of pigeon peas.
