Mozambique: Armed group kills four fishermen, burns boats at locality in Cabo Delgado

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Mozambique: Armed group kills four fishermen, burns boats at locality in Cabo Delgado

6:00 CAT | 08 Feb 2022

FILE PHOTO - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

An armed group killed four fishermen in a coastal locality in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, on Monday, local sources told Lusa on Tuesday.

The victims were shot dead on the beach of Nagulue locality, in Mucojo administrative post, Macomia district, which since September has been one of those affected by attacks attributed to insurgents fleeing the Mozambican and international military offensive in Mocímboa da Praia and Palma, to the north.

“The four people were killed by the insurgents. and one of them was my neighbour. I don’t know why they went to that place. The government is preventing people from going there because of the insecurity,” said Ernesto Navanga, a resident who has a machamba near to where the bodies were found.

According to another source, the fishermen were surprised as they were preparing to set sail.

Afterwards, the aggressors “burnt the boats. It was serious what happened”, Ernesto lamented.

According to reports, a displaced person from Palma was among those killed. In addition to the four victims, a fifth person has either escaped or been kidnapped, they add.

The attack in Mucojo followed another, on Saturday, in Macomia district, in which armed rebels attacked two trucks carrying material for rebuilding bridges over the Messalo river, sources from the district headquarters told Lusa.

One driver was shot dead and the other is still missing, they added.

Cabo Delgado province, in the north of Mozambique, is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized for four years by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

The conflict has already cost more than 3,100 lives, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and displaced more than 817,000 civilians, according to the Mozambican authorities.

Since July 2021, offensives by government troops, with the support of Rwanda, later joined by Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces, have restored security, recovering several areas from rebel control, but occasional attacks persist in other parts of the province.

Source: Lusa