Former 'Irish Examiner' columnist abducted while travelling in Tanzania
Dan MacCarthy in Africa
A former columnist and author was abducted and threatened with death while travelling in Tanzania.
Dan MacCarthy was held hostage by five men in the "kidnappers' paradise" of Dar es Salaam on Thursday morning after a bogus taxi collected him to bring him to the airport after 5am.
Once in the car, large men got in and pinned his wrists to the seat. They told him they would kill him if he did not give them his money.
Travelling for two months across Africa before he was abducted, he had hiked to Kilimanjaro, up to the source of the Nile and the Rwenzori Mountains and kayaked down a river in Madagascar.
He was on route to Malawi and a pre-paid trek across the Kalahari when he was taken hostage.
A man on the street struck up a conversation with him as he was walking back to his hotel and said if he ever needed a taxi to give him a call.
Mr MacCarthy said he "made the mistake" of booking that taxi to the airport the following morning.
When his 'driver' arrived the next morning with another man also in the car, he explained that an extra driver was needed as Dar es Salaam can be "very dangerous at night". Mr MacCarthy was told that people "can get attacked and abducted".
“We drove about 100 meters, and he pulled into an alleyway and jumped out and three of his henchmen came in," Mr MacCarthy said.
“He said ‘hand over your phone and wallet, give me the code [to the cards] or we'll kill you'.
Surrounded by five men who had threatened to kill him, he was then forced to set up an account on the money transfer app Remitly — which he later learned has operations in Cork — to transfer more money to the criminals.
Ejecting him in a shantytown as light was breaking, he was handed his passport, €16 and bank cards and told to go to the airport.
His camera, other electronics and his shoes were also stolen.
Mr MacCarthy went straight to the police station to report the crime and said the police were helpful. But crime is so rife in the city that police wore flak jackets, helmets and carried Kalashnikovs to patrol in armoured cars.
“That's the life on the ground in Dar es Salaam,” he said.
Mr MacCarthy is now safely back in Ireland. He warned people travelling to Tanzania to avoid Dar es Salaam. Anyone planning on hiking Kilimanjaro can access it from other, safer places like the city of Arusha or Kilimanjaro Airport, he said.
“Dar es Salaam is a kidnappers' paradise,” Mr MacCarthy said. "There’s a motorway to the airport and they're hunting cars up and down that motorway, hunting tourists.
“My hotel said, ‘if you're getting the taxi the next day, make sure the windows are blacked out because if you're stuck at traffic lights, the window could be smashed, you could be pulled out, your car could be rammed, you'll be abducted'.
“It happened the week before to a diplomat. An EU diplomat coming in from the airport, his car was bumped from behind and he got out to check what happened. Four or five other cars stopped, and he was surrounded by 25 people. So they have loads of techniques. They're very good at it. They're very quick and violent if they need to be.
“These criminals prey on any gap in your defences."
The Irish Embassy in Tanzania and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade were hugely helpful to him, he said.
“The embassy told me that these abductions like mine are called 'express kidnappings'. They usually get about €5,000 from them. That could be based on the theory that people might have two or three cards on them and the maximum they can get out is about €1700.”
Travelling in darkness is a vulnerability, he said, with nobody around to notice if you are in trouble. He advised people in the city to never take a street taxi and to only book through your hotel or a reputable taxi company.
Dar es Salaam, where Mr McCarthy was abducted, is the commercial capital and largest city in Tanzania.
With a population of more than seven million people, it is the largest city by population in East Africa and the fifth-largest in Africa.
Mr MacCarthy, who is from West Cork, wrote a popular column on the islands of Ireland for the . He also wrote about hillwalking, mountaineering and cycling for the Irish Examiner and he worked as a subeditor for the publication.
His book, , published by Collins Press, helped readers find new and beautiful cycling routes through Munster.
Mr MacCarthy is also an avid traveller.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been contacted for comment.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
