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Mozambique: Terrorists abandon Macomia leaving trail of destruction – photos
2:15 CAT | 01 Jun 2020
All photos: Courtesy of Pinnacle News
The group of insurgents that attacked and occupied Macomia district capital on Thursday, May 28, abandoned the town on Saturday night, May 30,leaving a trail of destruction and after controlling the main urban centre in central and northern Cape Delegate for three days.
Residents report scenes of war and the destruction of public and commercial infrastructure, as well as the “total paralysis” of their lives during the occupation by the young jihadists, known locally as Al-Shaabab.
“Yesterday (Sunday) morning, people started to go and take a peek at the town. Everything is destroyed,” one resident calling himself Salimo told VOA, describing a mixture of “weeping and frightened silence” in the neighbourhoods.
Another resident, who, together with Salimo, was looking for family members who got separated during their escape on Thursday, said that some places in the village were “unrecognisable”.
“The main market is completely destroyed, reduced to ashes. There are many houses with bullet holes in them,” the resident said, adding that “we don’t know if there are people who died inside the houses”.
By early Sunday afternoon, there was still little concrete information about the damage caused by the invasion of Macomia’s main urban centre, which sits on the asphalt road that connects to the northern districts of Cabo Delegado and the neighbouring Republic of Tanzania.
Several local sources said the insurgents plundered the BCI bank branch in the town on Friday, and sabotaged the telecommunications towers and the electricity substation, leaving the northernmost districts of Cabo Delgado in a blackout and without communications.
Meanwhile, 35 children, from different families, who fled the attack, arrived in Pemba on Saturday and were taken to a school in the Cariacó neighbourhood on the outskirts.
The children say they fled the insurgent invasion and walked for two days through the bush before reaching the village of Mitambo. From there, they walked on the road to Moja village, where a truck driver took them to Pemba.
A resident of the Cariacó neighbourhood who saw the children on Sunday morning told VOA that they were “visibly traumatised”, and that they reported seeing a much larger number of insurgents during the invasion.
The authorities are now identifying the children prior to reuniting them with their families.
By André Baptista
Damage in Macomia from last weeks battles in Cabo Delgado. No detail forthcoming on civilian and security force casualties. Govt reportedly claim 79 insurgents killed and a further 70 injured
photos from @news_pinnacle pic.twitter.com/BRfoUjJxT1
— Piers Pigou (@PiersPigou) June 1, 2020
A Vila de #Macomia celebra hoje 55 anos de existência com a população refugiada no mato e a Vila completamente destruída. pic.twitter.com/NygYeEr6PM
— Tomás Queface (@tomqueface) June 1, 2020
Source: Voa Portugues
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