Freedom, privately arranged

Good afternoon. The release of three workers abducted from a Niassa hunting camp has left other families asking why their children are still missing. Their anger exposes a failure of public protection. Private actors could arrange a negotiated release and fly the freed men to safety, while the families of seven others seized in the same attack have no clear account of their fate.

The three Mozambique Wildlife Adventures (MWA) employees were released on 4 October after a payment of about $53,000 (MZN3.4m), sources told Zitamar. They spent the night at a handover point in Montepuez district, its coordinates supplied by the insurgents, before a South-African-registered helicopter and an armed private team collected them the next morning. That team did not fight anyone out of captivity. The insurgents had already let the men go, and the operation was an evacuation of hostages they had released, not an assault to free them.

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Zitamar understands that on Monday, 5 October, villagers gathered at MWA’s premises over the fate of their children. Carta de Moçambique reports that the families believe the state secured the workers’ freedom and left their children behind; our own sources describe an entirely private arrangement, with no government involvement. The distinction changes where responsibility lies, and it offers the parents nothing. Niassa’s secretary of state, Silva Livone, says the authorities are working to free the children and has asked the families not to demonstrate.

Pressure on MWA is understandable. Its workers came back, which shows that contact with the captors and an agreement were possible. But we don’t know whether the others could have been included, whether the insurgents would have freed them on the same terms, or what the company knew about where they’re held. The state bears primary responsibility for protecting citizens and recovering them when it fails. A safari operator can’t be made to stand in for it.