12-Year-old girl kidnapped in Mocímboa da Praia exposes risks posed by local force to civilians
The January 2026 kidnapping of a 12-year- old girl in Mocímboa da Praia, the daughter of a Local Force member, should be seen as yet another episode in a pattern of risks already widely documented by civil society organizations, including CDD. This is not an exceptional event but a predictable consequence of a security model marked by informal recruitment, weak arms control, and the absence of effective accountability mechanisms.
According to information gathered from local sources, the kidnapping occurred as an act of retaliation following the death of a young motorcycle taxi driver identified as the brother of an insurgent, allegedly at the hands of members of the Local Force. This chain of events confirms what previous reports have already warned: the actions of this force tend to generate cycles of revenge that affect civilians with no involvement in the conflict.
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