Cabo Delgado: Teenagers kidnapped by terrorists in Nangade district

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Cabo Delgado: Teenagers kidnapped by terrorists in Nangade district

1:58 CAT | 19 Apr 2022

Image: Google Maps

Members of a terrorist group linked to the Islamic State last Friday (15-04) abducted at least ten people, including teenage girls and boys, from Chibão village, Nangade district, Cabo Delgado province, several local sources have told VOA.

The sources said that the group first invaded Chicuaia village on Friday afternoon, capturing and beheading a member of the local protection force, one of the residents told VOA.

Another resident said it was unclear whether the victim’s gun was taken by the terrorists or not.

In another attack, on Chibão village, not far from the site of the first attack, the group kidnapped ten people, including girls, boys and adults. They were forced to carry the products looted in the village, according to a resident who survived by hiding in the forest.

Powerless population

“They arrived and tied up the adults, and then they rounded up the other people (teenagers). We don’t know where the attackers are from or where they took people to,” a witness reported, adding that the population feels “powerless and tied” in the war.

Another resident, Zunaid Omar, displaced to the main village of Nangade since the recent attack on his village, told VOA that the new attacks had left them “on an island in the main village (of Nangade); terrorists have surrounded the entire village”.

The terrorists “are seen passing through some villages”, he continued, reigniting the climate of insecurity in an area despite the presence of foreign forces. Residents had taken refuge in their ‘machambas’ [agricultural plots].

The Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in Pemba did not respond to our request for comment on the most recent abductions.

In a recent interview with VOA, the director of Save The Children in Mozambique, Brechtje Vanlith, said that the humanitarian organisation remains “shocked and deeply alarmed” by the persistence of violence in Cabo Delgado, including reports of new cases of abductions and even the beheading of children with some 7,000 forced to flee to safety in February.

The insurrection that broke out in 2017 has since then taken the lives of at least 4,000 people, and forced some 850,000 to flee their homes. The insurgents’ brutal tactics, including beheadings, mass kidnappings, and the burning of whole villages, has shaken the entire region.

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Source: Voa Portugues