Mozambique: Police deny rebels control parts of Cabo Delgado

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Mozambique: Police deny rebels control parts of Cabo Delgado

4:10 CAT | 14 Apr 2020

Photo: O País

The general commander of the Mozambican police today denied that there are points controlled by Islamist rebels in Cabo Delgado, saying that the Defence and Security Forces continue to “work to restore order” in that region of northern Mozambique.

“There are no areas that can be said to be in the hands of the rebels. What do exist are areas prone to incursions by the evildoers,” said the commander-general of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Bernardino Rafael, quoted today by STV television channel.

Bernardino Rafael admitted that “the situation of order restoration in the region prevails,” pointing to the districts of Mocímboa da Praia, Muidumbe, Macomia and Quissanga as the most critical.

“The Defence and Security Forces continue to work to restore order. We call on the people to collaborate because although most of these young people are from Tanzania [a neighbouring country], some of them are Mozambican. They are being fooled with promises of employment,” Bernardino Rafael said.

Cabo Delgado province has been the target of attacks by armed groups that international organizations class as a terrorist threat and which in two and a half years has claimed at least 350 lives, in addition to 156,400 people affected with loss of property or forced to abandon their homes and lands in search of safe places.

In late March, the villages of Mocímboa and Quissanga were invaded by a group, which destroyed several buildings and raised its flag in a barracks of the Defence and Security Forces of Mozambique.

On the occasion, in a video distributed on the Internet, an alleged ‘jihadist’ militant justified the attacks by armed groups in northern Mozambique with the aim of imposing Islamic law in the region.

This was the first message issued by the perpetrators of the attacks that took place two and a half years ago in Cabo Delgado province, recorded in one of the villages they invaded.

Source: Lusa