Scary stuff

So, normal hilarity and incredulity aside - Maputo can be a scary place. Today, right now, its a scary place.
My school, the place where I work and that my youngest child attends, has just sent out an e-mail to make known that a parent has been kidnapped from a local school - a school which has its campus in the same street as ours. She was abducted as she walked back to her car after dropping off her daughter. We don't know who she is, but if past kidnappings are to go by, she belongs to a wealthy business family.
Kidnappings are becoming all too commonplace in Mozambique. They have been rife in Beira, in the North, for some time. Last year there were several high profile kidnappings in Maputo, most of them centred on the wealthy Asian families. Most of them businessmen. But victims included a grandmother snatched from outside a mosque and a 19 year-old girl.
And in the last few weeks, the kidnappings are back, with a vengeance that defies our cosy idea that they are aimed at a certain demographic. Two weeks ago, a nine year old Mozambiquan boy was snatched after his driver-driven car was rammed on the way to school. He was returned by the end of the week, but it is unclear if a ransom was paid.
In the week following, two other children were taken close to their schools. One apparantly taken off his school bus.
Its scary stuff.
My empregada assures me that the `dangerous' know exactly who they are taking. That they know the families and watch their movements. But that doesn't make me any less worried. At what point does a poor population start thinking that kidnappings are the way to go. When you have very little, the prospect of scoring £10000 can sound like a fortune. At what point do they decide that all expats would cough up more money than a poor Mozambican could dream of? At what point does it become indiscriminate, as it has done in other countries. When do we get really afraid?
And I know that bad things happen anywhere, and I know that my school is doing everything possible to keep us safe. But what would I do if my child is taken? All rationality says it won't happen, but there's a nagging `what if?'
Scary stuff and no idea of how to deal with it.