Cabo Delgado: Arrest of alleged member of armed groups could be “tip of the iceberg”

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Cabo Delgado: Arrest of alleged member of armed groups could be “tip of the iceberg”

9:54 CAT | 02 Sep 2020

Photo: DW

Weapons and military uniforms were seized along with the suspect detained in Pemba. SERNIC believes that insurgents “send equipment in advance”, and then attack.

The National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado last Thursday (27-08) presented to the press an alleged member of the group of insurgents launching attacks in the region since 2017.

The suspect detained by SERNIC was seized at a bus stop in Pemba on the 12th of August. In his possession were two bags containing five AK-47 assault rifles, ten ammunition clips (seven full and three empty), six military uniforms, four military shirts, and a pair of military boots, SERNIC reported.

The war material left the district of Mueda – about 300 kilometres from Pemba and about 100 kilometres from Mocímboa da Praia – and was to be delivered to a citizen in Pemba, the man said.

The director of the National Criminal Investigation Service, in Cabo Delgado, Ntego Crisanto Ntego, has no doubt that the operation intercepted was aimed at moving arms to Pemba by the armed group launching attacks in the region since 2017.

“History tells us that when the insurgents want to enter a territory, they send equipment on ahead of them, and then they come dressed in civilian clothing,” Ntego said. “We believe this to be their modus operandi.”

Suspect blames his military cousin

The man detained in Pemba says he was just fulfilling a request of his cousin, a military man who asked him to retrieve a bag he had left on a bus. The bag was then to be handed over to the mother of soldier living in the Alto Gingone neighbourhood in Pemba. The accused says he did not know what the bag contained.

“I took it into consideration that he was my cousin, and I left home at 4:00 p.m. to go to the station, where I had to wait until 6:00 p.m. for the arrival of the aforementioned bus that carried the bag. When the Nagi [bus] arrived, I contacted my cousin to ask how we would collect an order without having the number of the person who carried it? So my cousin gives me the [phone] number of the ticket collector and number of the seat where they were sitting when they forgot the bag,” he reported.

The man says that, shortly after receiving the two bags from the ticket collector, he was surprised by agents of the National Criminal Investigation Service, who then arrested him.

“They took me to their [SERNIC] post and opened [the bags]. After opening the bags and seeing everything inside, they asked me: ‘Who sent you to go and receive the bag?’ to which I replied that the person who told me to get the bag is a military man named Amar Mateus. From there, they took me and left me at the 3rd Police Station,” he added.

The suspect was taken before the criminal investigating judge, who legalised and maintained his detention.

Arms entry in Pemba

Ntego Crisanto fears that this is not the first case of smuggling arms into the capital of Cabo Delgado at the hands of those suspected of belonging to the insurgents.

“We are already afraid that other weapons may have entered… but other weapons may not have entered. What is being said is that, because it is weaponry and he stands accused, he may lie, and say that Mr So-and-so gave me the weapons, while it’s not true. The circuitous route taken to arrive in Pemba is very strange,” Crisanto confessed.

SRNIC is now working to ascertain the source and destination of the weaponry, and the reason for moving it.

Source: Deutsche Welle