Mozambique attacks: Government says armed groups wear army uniforms and use drones

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Mozambique attacks: Government says armed groups wear army uniforms and use drones

2:56 CAT | 27 May 2020

File photo: Sala da Paz

Mozambique’s interior minister said today that the groups carrying out armed attacks in the north of the country were wearing Mozambican army uniforms and using drones to identify their targets, but were nevertheless “losing ground”.

“The terrorists wear the uniform of the Armed Forces for the Defence of Mozambique (FADM) and use drones for reconnaissance,” Minister Amade Miquidade said.

Miquidade was responding in parliament to questions from deputies of the Assembly of the Republic on strategies to end violence in the north of Mozambique.

The groups uses the civilian population as “human shields”, he continued. They had adopted guerrilla tactics, organising themselves in small formations to carry out attacks on the population and the Defence and Security Forces (FDS).

“As a ‘modus operandi’, they entice local and religious leaders, use places of worship for concentration and the perpetration of attacks and, under duress, melt back into the local community, where families give them social shelter,” he added.

Amade Miquidade said that the FDS were gaining ground in the fight against the armed groups, driving them into areas more distant from local communities.

“The enemy is on the run, and constantly on the move in search of safe havens, but we are in pursuit, especially in remote areas of the districts of Quissanga and Mocímboa da Praia,” Miquidade stressed.

The FDS, he continued, were focused on cutting the groups’ logistical and military supply lines to prevent resupply with weapons, food, transport and communications.

The Minister of the Interior said that the government was committed to putting a stop to the recruitment of young people by these groups, pointing out that armed violence in Cabo Delgado would not be allowed to stall economic and social development in the province.

The violence in the north of Mozambique could affect all of southern Africa, Miquidade stressed, which was why the policy, defence and security body of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) this month expressed solidarity with Mozambique’s right to defend itself against the armed groups.

The interior minister did not indicate the origin of the military uniforms worn by the armed groups or the drones they use.

Cabo Delgado, a region where megaprojects for the extraction of natural gas are advancing, has been grappling with attacks by armed groups which have been classified as a terrorist threat since October 2017. Mozambican authorities account for a total of 162,000 people affected by armed violence.

Violence in the region has killed at least 550 people since 2017.

Regarding armed violence in the centre of the country, Amade Miquidade again accused the self-proclaimed Military Junta of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, for the attacks in the region, saying that the FDS were committed to eradicating the group.

Armed raids In the centre of the country attributed to a dissent group of Renamo guerrillas have since August 2019 targeted security forces and civilians in villages and on roads in the region, causing more than 20 deaths and many injuries in addition to the destruction of vehicles and other infrastructure.