PORT MORESBY – A new trend of kidnapping young children on roadsides or at busy market places has raised concern among Port Moresby residents.

The Post-Courier newspaper has spoken to children and their families for verification of rumours of children being abducted and interviewed a 12-year-old victim – whose name was withheld – who managed to escape his captors.

The boy said he was walking down from his home in the Konedobu Ranuguri community to his uncle’s market when the incident happened.

It was around 7.00pm on Monday last week, when he was snatched off the footpath by a big man who put his hand over the boy’s mouth and dragged him into a 15-seater white bus.

He told The Post-Courier that he noticed a white man sitting offside with a tattoo on his right arm, while the other four accomplices were Papua New Guineans of Highlands origin, and describe as being “big”.

He said he noticed a cooler, black plastic bags, and knives in the vehicle and remembers trying not to breathe as there were foul smells inside the vehicle.

“They told me that they were taking me to Nine Mile to feed me rice,” he said.

It was when he noticed another man preparing to inject him with a syringe that he bit the hand of the man covering his mouth and jumped out of the moving vehicle.

He immediately climbed over the fence of a residential area seeking refuge before making his way and back to his house.

The incident has shaken him, preventing him from attending school since.

Other incidents of child kidnapping reports have gone viral on social media and the stories seems to be true, the newspaper reports. - Post-Courier

‘Warriors’ say no to violence

APIA – A Warrior’s Promise is the latest initiative by Samoa Victim Support to drive the Say NO to Violence message through public transport and publicly displayed posters.

Fronted by sportsmen, male role models and men graduates of the SVSG Men’s Advocacy Group, the campaign is in its fourth week of implementation and gearing up for the 16 Days of Activism period from November 25 to December 10.

Former Manu Samoa player Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu is one of the “proud warriors” in thecampaign who together with other sportsmen and family leaders, are stepping up to say “enough” to the violence invading the security of Samoa’s families.

The campaign has reached close to 35,000 people from those commuting on buses and taxis, on the ferries to and from Savaii, street vendors, pedestrians, shoppers and those on social media.

The business community and some anonymous donors have partnered with SVSG in getting the message out there since the campaign was launched.

The funding has enabled SVSG to print more awareness brochures, posters and shirts for the warriors promoting the Say NO to Violence message all over Samoa.

- Talamua