Mozambique: Armed group was still occupying important Cabo Delgado town this morning – Lusa

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Mozambique: Armed group was still occupying important Cabo Delgado town this morning – Lusa

2:33 CAT | 29 May 2020

Image: Lusa

The armed group that occupied the town of Macomia on Thursday, the main locality in the central province of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, was still in the area this morning (May 29), two sources told Lusa.

Based on testimonies from relatives living in Macomia, the two sources reported that the armed men were still occupying and moving around the village at 7:00 a.m. today (06:00 in Lisbon).

Since Thursday morning it has been difficult to follow the changing situation because mobile phone communications have been cut off several times, apparently because the armed group destroyed telecommunications and power supply infrastructures.

The bishop of Pemba, capital of Cabo Delgado province, Luiz Lisboa, told Lusa that the priests and other parish staff of the Catholic Church in Macomia left the village for safety, but added he had no more information due to communication problems.

“[The priests] left the village to save their lives and I can’t get secure information about what’s going on right now,” Luiz Lisboa said.

A source from the Mozambican Ministry of National Defence told Lusa that the situation in Macomia “is still being analysed by the joint command” of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), which is run by the Ministry of the Interior.

Lusa has not yet been able to hear the Ministry of the Interior on the matter.

The town of Macomia is the main meeting point in the middle of the paved road that connects the north to the south of the province, its has a bank, several services and stores and it is the headquarters of a district with about 100,000 inhabitants.

It is about 200 kilometres from the provincial capital, Pemba.

Macomia was the urban area hardest hit by Cyclone Kennethone year ago, one of the worst to hit Mozambique in April 2019, killing 45 people in the north of the country.

The attack on Macomia took place on the same day that the ruling Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) offered a cheque for four million meticais (€52,000) and 40,000 masks to support victims of violence in Cabo Delgado displaced in Pemba and elsewhere.

The aid was channelled by the Secretary-General of Frelimo to the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC).

Cabo Delgado has been under attack by armed rebel groups since October 2017, classified since the beginning of the year by Mozambican and international authorities as a terrorist threat.

For a year now the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State has been claiming some of the attacks.

In two and a half years of conflict, it is estimated that at least 550 people have been killed and around 200,000 have been affected, forced to take refuge in safer places, losing their homes, gardens and other property.

The Mozambican government has reported some responses by the army against armed groups, reiterating that it is repressing violence, but the invasion and occupation of settlements has intensified since the beginning of the year.

Source: Lusa