A rights group on Thursday called on the Mozambican government to take steps to locate freelance Arlindo Chissale who has been missing since his arrest by the police over five days ago in the conflict-hit Cabo Delgado province.
According to Human Rights Watch, Chissale has not been seen since he was taken into custody on October 29 while covering a story in the mining town of Balama.
Quoting family members and Chissale’s friends, HRW said the journalist “has been held incommunicado and without access to lawyers since his detention.”
“The Mozambican government should immediately take steps to locate Chissale, inform his family of his whereabouts and ensure his safe return home,” the group said.
Chissale is editor of Pinnacle News, an online publication that has covered the ongoing violence in Cabo Delgado where jihardists have been waging a war against government forces and attacking private businesses since 2017.
HRW called on the Mozambican authorities to stop security forces from harassing and threatening journalists and take action against those who continue to do so.
Chissale’s forced disappearance followed many other documented cases in which Mozambican security forces allegedly harassed, threatened, and arbitrarily detained journalists covering fighting between government forces and the Islamist armed group al-Shabab, known locally as Mashababos.
The last journalist known to have disappeared in Cabo Delgado was Ibrahimo Mbaruco who went missing in April 2020 after meeting a group of government soldiers in Palma town. He has not been heard from since.
The Mozambican government has not publicly disclosed the status of the investigations, if any, into his disappearance.
JN/APA