Mozambique: Five Cabo Delgado districts isolated following bridge collapse - Watch
Photo: O País
A new armed attack on a bus in central Mozambique killed one person and injured another on Monday night, local sources told Lusa.
The incident brings the number killed in armed attacks on civilian and police targets carried by groups hiding out the region’s forests since August to 11.
The attack took place on the National Road Number 1 (EN1) near Muda Serração, Gondola district, at around 7:00 p.m. – just after nightfall, and the target was a bus carrying passengers from Maputo to Quelimane, the provincial capital of Zambezia, in the centre of the country.
The injured passenger is being treated in Gondola, while the deceased victim was transported to Inchope.
Chronic insecurity is affecting two of the country’s main roads: the EN1, which connects the north and south of the country, and the EN6, which connects the Port of Beira city to Zimbabwe and other southern African hinterland countries. Policing has been reinforced on some sections of the roads.
Mozambique Police have blamed guerrillas faithful to the self-proclaimed ‘Military Junta’ dissident opposition (Renamo) splinter group for the attacks.
The raids have taken place in a Renamo stronghold, where the guerrillas fought Mozambican defence and security forces and hit civilian targets from 2015 until the December 2016 ceasefire.
Officially, Renamo has distanced itself from the current incidents, and says it is implementing the disarmament specified in the peace agreement of August 6 this year, but a dissident group – considered deserters by Renamo and led by Mariano Nhongo – remains entrenched in the bush pending better demobilisation conditions.
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