Cabo Delgado: Insurgents ambush and kill 20 FDS members and five Russians – Carta

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Cabo Delgado: Insurgents ambush and kill 20 FDS members and five Russians – Carta

1:51 CAT | 29 Oct 2019

Cabo Delgado insurgents on Sunday afternoon (27 October) ambushed a vehicle in the Namala region of Miangalewa, Muidumbe district, killing 20 members of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), ‘Carta de Moçambique’ reports.

Sources told ‘Carta’ that the attackers had set up barricades on the road and opened fire when the FDS vehicle arrived. The victims were reportedly beheaded and the vehicle burned.

According to ‘Carta’ sources, the bodies were taken to the Mueda District Hospital (HDM), before being released to their families. Three of the dead soldiers are from Nangade, a district already the target of previous attacks.

Five Russian members of the Wagner Group, which is helping the Mozambican government tackle violence in that area of the country, are also reported to have died.

The attack comes at a time when the Ministry of National Defence (MDN) has claimed several victories, an alleged Islamic State (IS) website called Al Naba claiming the same.

In the meantime… missing another economic agent in Mucojo

Every day sees informal traders in insurgency-affected districts in Cabo Delgado province experiencing a climate of fear – of one day being kidnapped by strangers.

‘Carta’ sources say that, in their recent searches in the Mucojo Administrative Post, in Macomia district, members of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) “captured” a merchant named Insa Apassuli from his small stall.

The reasons for his disappearance are not known, nor is anyone aware of what he had done to merit being allegedly captured by the military. Those who know him describe him as a simple, married man, struggling to make a living, and moreover among those who fought the establishment of radical ideologies among the youth of Rueia village, in that part of the country.

At the time of his capture by the members of the FDS, who are said to have presented no arrest warrant, Issa was married to two wives, one of them an elementary school teacher in Mucojo, and is the father of four daughters.

Five #Russians and 20 Mozambicans killed in an ambush last Sunday in #CaboDelgado. The insurgents seem to have become bolder in response to the government’s offensive. https://t.co/Z4sIwAAlIr

— Eric Morier-Genoud (@emorier) 29 October 2019