The International Federation of Journalists on Tuesday called on the Mozambican government to ensure the safe return of a journalist allegedly abducted by the army more than a month ago in the troubled northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Palma community radio journalist Ibraimo Abu Mabaruco was allegedly arrested by soldiers on the night of April 7 after leaving his office and has not been seen since then.
IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger condemned the arrest and incommunicado detention as illegal, describing it as tantamount to forceful disappearance.
“The journalist posed no threat to the military or the security forces but was doing his job in the public interest… The Government of Mozambique must immediately put an end to these illegal arrests of journalists by the military,” Bellanger said in a statement.
He called on the Mozambican authorities to “guarantee the safety and security of journalists in the country and release our colleague immediately.”
According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Mozambique chapter, Mabaruco told his colleagues via a text message on the day of the abduction that he was “surrounded with soldiers.”
MISA also said a police officer based at the district police command in Palma had confided in the media watchdog that “it was the Armed Forces of Mozambique that took the journalist.”
The police officer said “he knew that the journalist was taken from Palma to Mueda where the armed forces have the interrogation room,” according to MISA.
Several journalists have been harassed, intimidated, arrested and detained in Cabo Delgado province where Mozambican security forces are battling an armed insurgency.
JN/APA