Mozambique: Armed groups attack two lorries on main roads

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Armed groups attack two lorries on main roads

5:11 CAT | 08 Nov 2019

Photo: Social Media

Armed groups on Friday attacked two lorries in central Mozambique following raids since August in the area, but this time without causing deaths or injuries, civilian sources and authorities told Lusa.

A tanker that left the port of Beira for Malawi was shot several times on National Road 6, the country’s main road corridor.

In a video that circulated on social media, the driver of the lorry warned of the danger: “It is ugly here, I have just been attacked as I approach Inchope,” a town where the EN6 and EN1 cross.

In this video, the driver shows the perforated tanker at various points and fuel gushing into the road, and local sources have told Lusa that it has already continued its journey after containing the spill.

On another main road, the EN1, on the Inchope – Muxungue section, a goods lorry was shot at as it was heading from the junction to the hinterland.

Both occurrences occurred within the boundaries of Gondola District, Manica Province.

The attacks in the region have killed ten people since August and intensified after the general and provincial elections on 15 October in which the ruling party, the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo), recorded overwhelming victories.

The police blame the attacks on guerrillas of the opposition Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) without making a distinction between the party’s armed wing and a group of dissidents led by Mariano Nhongo, who resigned from Ossufo Momade’s leadership in June and threatened to destabilise the region.

Renamo has responded to the police by denying any relationship between the armed men under its command – because they are complying with the disarmament agreement, he said – and the attacks, calling on the police to arrest those responsible.

“If the Defence and Security Forces are unable to defeat this group (from Mariano Nhongo’s self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta), then do not blame Renamo for the attacks,” José Manteigas told Lusa, insisting that Renamo is committed to the peace agreement and has acted in good faith to preserve it.

The same kind of violence in that region happened in 2015, in the post-election period, when Afonso Dhlakama (former leader of Renamo) rejected Frelimo’s victory but denied involvement in the clashes.

Source: Lusa