MAPUTO (Xinhua)
-- Armed robbery has returned to
Mozambique these days after the country enjoyed a
short period of calm which came after the police
killed the most wanted man Agostinho Chauque about
two months ago.
Chauque was the wanted man in
Mozambique and neighboring South Africa for murder
and bank theft.
As from last week, armed thieves
raided a bank and an office of the Mozambican
electricity company EDM in Maputo in broad
daylight, escaping with large sums of money.
The first attack took place at a
branch of the Commercial and Investment Bank (BCI)
in the central Maputo neighborhood of Alto Mae.
According to eye-witnesses, the
gang consisted of four young men and each armed
with an AK-47 assault rifle, using a grey Honda
saloon car as a getaway vehicle.
They neutralized the private
security guard on duty by throwing him out of
the building, and seized a sack containing a sum
of money.
The financial institution could
not disclose the amount of cash stolen.
The security guard tried to alert
the police.
He ran to two policemen stationed
at another bank, about 200 meters away.
One of the police sprinted across
the road but he was too late.
The getaway car already had its
doors open, the gang jumped in and the Honda made
off at high speed.
The second attack occurred in
EDM branch in the outer Maputo suburb of
Infulene.
This time, according to an EDM
press release, the gang consisted of eight men,
travelling in two cars.
Four of them were heavily armed
and two of them with AK-47s.
They overpowered the two security
guards on duty and ordered all the EDM workers and
clients present in the branch to lie on the floor.
The gang then stole about 6,100
U.S. dollars from payments made by EDM clients.
They also stole mobile phones and
other personal belongings from EDM staff and
clients.
A nearby policeman, realizing what
was happening, reacted to the robbery and there
was an exchange of gunfire.
Apparently none of the bandits
were hit, and they were able to make their
getaway.
Three weeks ago, a gang of
criminals attacked a vehicle that was
transporting large sums in cash in the western
Mozambican province of Tete, and stole the money
contained in three bags.
Radio Mozambique reported that
the vehicle was transporting the money from Tete
city to the branch of the country’s largest
commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM, in the town
of Songo.
The attack took place in Mpadue
neighborhood on the outskirts of Tete city.
The criminals opened fire against
the vehicle, killing the driver on the spot, and
injuring four others, some of them seriously.
When the driver was shot, he lost
the control of the vehicle which overturned later.
The criminals grabbed the bags
full of money and made their escape.
One of the injured victims said
that the thieves, who are still at large, were
heavily armed.
One of the injured bank workers
told Radio Mozambique that the stolen money was
intended for HCB and other institutions based in
Songo.
It is reported that the driver
was traveling to Songo without a police escort.
Spokesperson for the Interior
Ministry Pedro Cossa said that the
law-enforcement agents are hinting the
criminals. He promised that the culprits will be
presented to public and then be brought to
trial.
When President Armando Guebuza
took office, he promised to curb crime in
Mozambique.
.
MAPUTO (Xinhua)
-- The Mozambican Electricity Company (EDM)
plans to increase its power sales to neighboring
South Africa by 75 percent in the next three
years.
Chairman of the EDM Board of
Directors, Manuel Cuambe said currently the
southern African country was selling South Africa
10 million U.S. dollars worth of power each year.
He also said that EDM had
increased its power sales to neighboring Zambia by
20 per cent, and that Zimbabwe continued to owe
EDM five million dollars incurred during that
country’s decade long financial crisis.
According to Cuambe, during the
first six months of this year, EDM invested 17
million dollars in maintenance and acquisition
of new equipment, while it recorded a loss of 14
million, due to clandestine connections and the
theft of electrical materials.
Cuambe also said the power utility
planned to increase its local customer base to 94
percent from the current 89 per cent by the end of
2010, connecting 115 of the country’s 128
districts.
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