Police seizes 13-year-old Namibian girl from truck destined for Zambia

Eileen van der Schyff

Walvis Bay was shaken by the realities of human trafficking this week, when a 13-year-old girl was rescued from a truck destined for Zambia. Several foreign nationals were arrested by members of the Namibian Police at the truck, and an investigation has been launched to ascertain how these suspects came to kidnap the girl.

The successful rescue of the girl is thanks to the efforts of the community law enforcement unit, Narraville Community Against Crime (NCAC). Through these members’ vigilance paid off after the police reported over the weekend it was looking for a grey seven-seater vehicle which was involved in the kidnapping of the 13-year-old on Thursday 13 April this year from her home in Kuisebmond’s Tutaleni quarter.
NCAC’s members were on patrol in Kuisebmond when they spotted a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle the police were looking for. NCAC members stopped the vehicle and con-fronted the driver. The driver was clearly under the influence of alcohol and NCAC members ordered him to the nearest police station.
The driver however, panicked and said he wants to clear his name on the matter and would take the law enforcers to the kidnapped girl as he had knowledge thereof.
Law enforcers were taken to a vacant plot on the corner of Sam Nujoma Avenue and Hanna Mupetami Road (next to the 18th Road rail crossing) where much to their surprise they spotted the girl inside a truck. The truck was destined for Zambia.
NCAC members contacted the police who then removed the girl from the truck and then detained the driver and other foreigners who were also with this driver.
“When we stopped the 7-seater, we ordered the driver to go to the police station. He insisted he will show us where the owner of the 7-seater and the missing girl is to clear his name”, explained one of the members of NCAC to Namib Times. Adding they received threats by persons after the incident. The persons that made the threats were audibly foreign nationals. “When we arrived at the truck, we knocked on the window of the truck and the girl peeked out of one of the windows. We had to follow protocol and stayed by the truck until the police arrived. The police freed the girl from the truck”, it was explained.

The suspects were apprehended and taken into custody.
The girl told police the kidnappers allegedly watched her from the previous day near her house at Tutaleni. They enticed the girl to go with them to the Independence Beach. They returned her home several times, until the last time when she was not returned home.