Mozambique.”For precautionary reasons,” NGOs remove staff from Ibo Island – Tarmadade

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique.”For precautionary reasons,” NGOs remove staff from Ibo Island – Tarmadade

6:05 CAT | 04 Mar 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Prince Bonzo]

The approach of terrorist groups to Ibo Island, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, forced some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to remove collaborators from the site, the president of the local Municipal Council told Lusa this Monday.

The mayor of Ibo Island, Issa Tarmadade, assured that the activities there are running smoothly, despite the circulation of terrorist groups in the vicinity, but the situation led to the withdrawal of collaborators from the main NGOs operating locally, as a precaution.

“They are leaving, in fact. Yesterday [Sunday] a very swift departure of NGOs, who are working here in Ibo took place- They left for precautionary reasons, it doesn’t mean that we suffered anything, or some terrorist entered here in Ibo , no. It is a matter of precaution on their part and their employees and workers, there are threats from terrorists around the village of Ibo”, said Issa Tarmamade.

“Here in Ibo there is nothing, we have not suffered any attack, yes there is a threat. There is a threat around the village. And people are afraid of Ibo being attacked, this thing of people leaving appears”, the president of the Municipal Council of Ibo Island.

Despite the fear, the mayor says he has instructed municipal councillors and other employees to remain close to the population, while monitoring the work of the Defence and Security Forces on the ground: “As a municipality and councillors, no one leaves, they are all here, and we are working and we will accompanied the population as much as possible, the Defence and Security Forces are carrying out their work and at night we cannot walk after 8pm, for security reasons”.

Given the current situation, the mayor says he has privileged meetings with neighbourhood leaders [chefes de quarteirão], to call for the reinforcement of collective vigilance and to avoid infiltrators among the populations, especially fishermen.

“For people to be vigilant, to control unknown people, every block, every ten houses, they have to know who they are dealing with, who enters, who doesn’t enter and we are always with our citizens in the neighbourhoods giving advice. We have that thing of collecting mandatory from 8:00 pm, during the normal day the stalls are open, the markets are open, and the population moves around and sells their products”, he concluded.

The withdrawal of workers from the main NGOs operating on Ibo Island came one day after an attack by rebels against the FDS on the Quirimba Island, belonging to the municipality of Ibo Island, less than 15 kilometers away.

“They killed three FDS agents, in Quirimbas, and we are scared,” a community source from Ibo told Lusa today.

Residents say that after the attack on Quirimbas Island, the rebels killed a cow, which they cooked, and then invited the population to join.

According to the same source, the insurgents reiterated that they were on the side of the population and declared war against the Defence and Security Forces.

“They said they don’t want the people, they only want the people who are oppressing them. But we don’t understand, because sometimes they kill their own people”, lamented the same source, speaking anonymously.

After several months of relative normality in the districts affected by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, the province has been registering, for a few weeks now, new movements and attacks by rebel groups, which have limited circulation to some points on the few paved roads that give access to several districts.

Official data indicate that the new wave of attacks forced 67,321 people to flee their homelands, incursions justified by the Mozambican executive as a result of the “movement of small groups of terrorists” who left the barracks towards the south of Cabo Delgado, after a period of relative stability.

Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency for six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

Source: Lusa