State of Emergency Expires, 48 Detainees Released from Kolbe

Minister of Home Affairs Kareem Musa confirmed that the state of emergency (SOE), which was declared to address a spike in gang-related violence in specific parts of the country, has officially expired. As a result, 48 young men who were detained under the SOE were released from the Kolbe Foundation prison.

Speaking to News 5, Minister Musa said, “We did have a meeting last week with the Eastern Division, as well as the specialised unit, in terms of a plan moving forward, a strategy moving forward.”

He added, “I’m pretty confident, pretty comfortable with the plan that was devised by the commissioner and all the officers. And so you’ll see some of the strategies playing out over the next coming weeks and months.”

Minister Musa explained that the SOE was put in place because of the spike in crime. “Based on the information that was coming out at that time, there was bound to be a lot of retaliation,” he said. “Since the young men have been under the state of emergency, we have had mediation sessions, interventions. We have arrested in two of the cases, two of the murders, we have arrested the suspects.”

“We have taken a lot of guns off of the streets, and so you could see where for that period we were able to quell the crime and to reduce the tensions in the streets,” Musa stated.

With the release of the detainees, authorities are hoping for a lasting effect from the interventions. “We are hoping that the mediation sessions that were carried all behind prison, that they’re going to have great effect and upon their return out to society, that there would not be that continuation of crime and violence,” he said.