Mozambique: Cabo Delgado district displaced warn of suspect groups on the move

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Mozambique: Cabo Delgado district displaced warn of suspect groups on the move

12:22 CAT | 23 Aug 2024

Image: Google Maps

Displaced people from the Nancaramo reception centre, in the Metuge district of Cabo Delgado in north Mozambique, expressed concern on Thursday about the movements of groups supposedly associated with the rebels who have been carrying out attacks in the province.

‘They passed very close to our tents here in the centre. There were men and women in the group, carrying luggage,’ a source told Lusa from the reception centre located in the town of Nanile, almost 50 kilometres from Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado.

Although Metuge is located more than 140 kilometres from Macomia, where government forces are carrying out intense operations, the displaced people from Nancaramo believe that these are suspicious groups that have been fleeing the joint force’s raids since the beginning of August.

‘It was a scare for us,’ another displaced person told Lusa, adding that the suspicious groups were last seen on Saturday afternoon, just before they crossed National Road Number 1, on the stretch between Nancaramo and Nanlia.

‘We’re in the dark, nobody knows where they went, but they crossed the road,’ another source at the reception centre told Lusa.

A source from the paramilitary local force told Lusa on Tuesday that the intense clashes between the joint military mission and the insurgents, which began in the first days of August in the forests of the Mucojo administrative post (Macomia), continue and involve helicopters, armoured vehicles and armed men, with reports of shootings in places considered to be hiding places for these groups.

‘The idea is to dislodge the terrorists from their positions,’ a member of the local force, made up of former fighters in the national liberation struggle who are supporting the authorities in the fight against the insurgency, told Lusa.

The clashes precipitated the departure of some peasants out of fear, due to the intensity of the bombardments, especially as they took place near the agricultural areas of Namigure and Nambine, where some carry out activities such as clearing woodland in preparation for the next agricultural season.

Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State.

The last major attack took place on 10 and 11 May on the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents sacking the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with Mozambique’s defence and security forces.

Source: Lusa