Cabo Delgado: New attacks result from the movement of rebels fleeing Macomia – Government

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Cabo Delgado: New attacks result from the movement of rebels fleeing Macomia – Government

3:02 CAT | 08 Aug 2022

Photo: O País

Mozambican Defence Minister Cristóvão Chume said on Friday that the attacks in new locations in the south of Cabo Delgado are a consequence of the movement of rebels who fled the assault of the Catupa base, the main rebel refuge in Macomia district.

“What is happening in Ancuabe, Meluco and some episodes in Chiure and Memba are the dynamics of the large-scale operations that are taking place in Cabo Delgado province, particularly with the taking of the Catupa base, the centre of gravity of the terrorists,” Cristóvão Chume explained to the media after a meeting with the Tanzanian Minister of Defence and National Service, Stergomena Lawrence Tax, in Maputo.

In the spotlight are new attacks in the southern part of the province which began to be recorded in early June, mainly targeting remote points in the district of Ancuabe and Meluco, with incursions also causing unrest in nearby districts such as Metuge, Mecúfi and Chiure.

According to Minister Chume, the new rebel incursions are the result of the taking of the Catupa rebel base, located in dense forest in Macomia district.

“Given that [the Catupa base] has been taken, of course we are going to see terrorists creating problems in some areas in isolation. But the situation is more stable,” Minister Chume stressed.

The Catupa base, described as the main rebel refuge in Macomia, housed insurgents who fled the military operations which culminated in the recovery of Mocímboa da Praia in August last year, according to information provided by the Mozambican Defence and Armed Forces on 23 July.

According to Mozambican government forces, dozens of rebels were killed during the operation, including a leader of the group, and an unspecified quantity of war material, computers and communication radios used by insurgents to coordinate actions was seized.

At least 600 people kidnapped by rebels in Cabo Delgado were rescued during the operation, which took just over four months, according to official information from the Ministry of Defence of Rwanda, a country supporting Mozambique in the fight against the insurgency, alongside other forces from members states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

There are about 800,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and about 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registry project.

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with the support of Rwanda, which was later joined by SADC, allowed the recovery of areas where there was a presence of rebels, but their flight has led to new attacks in other districts used as a passage or refuge.

Source: Lusa