Sunday November 27, 2022
Stock Image: 123/rf.com
Capetown (HOL) - A 17-year-old Somali girl was kidnapped from her father's tuck shop in Western Cape this week, the latest in a string of kidnappings targeting business people and foreign nationals.
According to local police and witnesses, the teenage girl was grabbed by gunmen while her father was offloading merchandise at his shop in Delft.
The father tried to intervene to save his daughter but was pistol-whipped and overpowered.
According to the family, the father received a ransom demand of R 600,000 ($35,1132 USD). The kidnappers also warned they would harm his daughter if he didn't comply.
The Somali Association in the Western Cape told the local media they did not receive any additional information.
Earlier this month, Cape Town police rescued 8-year-old Abira Dekhta, who was snatched by armed men as she left her home in Gatesville to go to school. Abira's father is an Indian national who runs a cellphone shop in Cape Town. The kidnappers held the young girl for ten days as they tried to extort money from the family.
Researchers into South African crime trends have discovered that criminals intensely profile their victims to learn their financial status, nationality and family.
Kidnapping for ransom and extortion of foreign business professionals and their families is becoming more common in the greater Cape Town area.
Members of the Somali, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian and Chinese communities have been targeted by criminal gangs in incidents in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Blue Downs, Samora Machel, and Mfuleni.
In the first six months of 2022, approximately 2,391 kidnapping cases were reported in South Africa. 446 of these were reported in the Western Cape Province.