According to the director of the Institutional Communication and Press Office of the Luanda Provincial Command of the National Police, superintendent Nestor Goubel, the incident came to the attention of the authorities on Sunday afternoon, through an anonymous complaint.
Nestor Goubel said that this is a crime of human trafficking, ill-treatment and exploitation of minors, in which five children were victims, three males and two females, who have since been recovered and delivered to the authorities.
"According to the information that reached us, it was an individual, the moral author, Zacarias Roberto, 40, who recruited, with the complicity of the children's mothers, in the 30 market, municipality of Viana, children for the purpose of begging, that is, the mothers gave the children up so that they would then go out into the street to practice begging, begging and other practices," he said.
The responsible person pointed out that at the end of the day the values were divided.
"It's a practice that has been going on for some time, with the complicity of the families themselves, so much so that we have arrested here, besides the moral author, four mothers, presumed co-authors of these crimes," he stressed.
Nestor Goubel said that the children have been sent to a reception center in Viana, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Social Action, Family and Promotion of Women.
The spokesman of the Luanda provincial command of the National Police said that "in certain communities we often see children in the street, begging for money in certain streets, children who may be used by adults".
"We are here in the presence of the practice of the crime of trafficking in persons, foreseen and punishable in the Penal Code in Angola and the appeal that remains from the provincial command of Luanda is that it is necessary that there is a culture of denunciation, notice that we arrived until the clarification of this crime, the arrest of the presumed author through the denunciation of an anonymous individual," he added.
According to Nestor Goubel, reporting "is very important", "because some families are using children for these purposes of begging, collecting money, and other things, even prostitution".
"The appeal that remains here is that in your community be vigilant, whenever you notice even on the public road children - often they even give some signs, because they are tense, because they are coerced to do this work. The moral author even coerced, under threat, his own wife to participate in this scheme," he reported.
