Joint Mozambican/Rwandan operations continue while damage at Awasse is assessed – AIM

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Joint Mozambican/Rwandan operations continue while damage at Awasse is assessed – AIM

8:27 CAT | 05 Aug 2021

Screen grab: TVM

Mozambican and Rwandan forces appear to be closing in on the town of Mocimboa da Praia, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Mocimboa da Praia town has been in the hands of islamist terrorists, known locally as Al-Shabaab, since June 2020. It is the only district capital controlled by the terrorists. In late July, the joint Mozambican/Rwandan forces occupied positions formerly held by the islamists at Awasse and Diaca, on the approaches to Mocimboa da Praia.

Military sources told reporters that the operations of the Mozambican/Rwandan forces are continuing on the ground, with air support.

The general commander of the Mozambican police, Bernadino Rafael, visited Awasse on Tuesday and told reporters that the Mozambican forces intend to stay in the positions seized from the terrorists.

Watch the Voa Portugues report.

The jihadists left Awasse in ruins. In particular, they wrecked the electricity sub-station on which all the northern districts of Cabo Delgado depended for their power supply.

The Cabo Delgado director of the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, Gildo Marques, accompanied Rafael on his visit and told journalists that the sub-station is beyond repair. According to the independent newssheet “Mediafax” the scene that met Rafael, Marques and their delegation was one of “total destruction”.

The jihadists had wrecked the entire electricity infrastructure at Awasse, with the clear intention of ensuring that there can be no return to normal life in the northern districts of Cabo Delgado – at least not in the short term.

Marques was categorical – the only way of restoring electricity to the region was by building a new sub-station. Nothing can be rescued or rehabilitated from the old one.

“From what we have seen, the substation has been practically destroyed”, he said. “The transformer, the reactors, everything has been pretty much destroyed. Even the building has been destroyed, as you can see.”

The only investment possible was an entirely new sub-station, said Marques, “and that is not cheap”.

The provincial technical director of the mobile phone company Movitel, Mohammed Hassin, had a similar assessment – all the essential electricity infrastructure in Awasse had been destroyed.

“Our own station was vandalised”, said Hassin. “Six batteries were damaged, and the main transmission equipment was also vandalised”.

“Right now, we are going to sit down and assess the damage, so that as soon as possible we can re-establish communications”, said Hassin.

The destruction of the Awasse substation knocked out the power supply across northern Cabo Delgado, plunging into darkness the districts of Palma, Nangade, Muidumbe, Mueda and Mocimboa da Praia.

Les Forces de défense #Rwandaises, dans le cadre d’opérations conjointes avec les Forces armées du #Mozambique, ont neutralisés les terroristes affiliés à l’EI à Cabo Delgado et ont libérés des infrastructures clés à Awasse. #Rwanda #Mozambique @LwarhibaM @StanysBujakera @ethuin pic.twitter.com/MHK3Avr3Sj

— Goma24 (@goma24news) August 5, 2021

Awasse yamaze kubohorwa burundu n’Ingabo z’u Rwanda RDF na FADM za Mozambique.

Awasse Substation yashenywe n’inyeshyamba…. pic.twitter.com/n5kjhNXdfi

— songajames (@songajames123) August 4, 2021