Mozambique: Cabo Delgado insurgents kill five and amputate person’s arm

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Mozambique: Cabo Delgado insurgents kill five and amputate person’s arm

1:23 CAT | 12 Apr 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Google maps]

The armed groups responsible for attacks in Cabo Delgado killed five people and amputated the arm of another in the Quissanga district, local sources told Lusa today.

The act took place at around 08:00 (07:00 in Lisbon) on Wednesday in the administrative post of Bilibiza, in the Quissanga district, when residents of an inland community were working in their agricultural fields.

“That was horrible. The terrorists found the people working and forced them to go with them. After that, at a certain point, they shot five people dead,” a relative of one of the victims told Lusa.

In addition to the five dead, the rebels amputated the arm of another person, who is currently in the district headquarters of Macomia, 40 kilometres from Bilibiza.

Among the dead, added another source, is a woman who twice escaped the terrorist groups in the region.

“The terrorists saw the woman and recognised her. They told her she was stubborn and then killed her,” said another source from Quissanga who has taken refuge in Pemba, the provincial capital.

The new attack in Bilibiza comes at a time when people are preparing for the harvest, raising fears among communities that depend mostly on subsistence farming.

“The food is almost ready, but the terrorists are killing [in the fields],” the source lamented.

The province has been facing an armed insurgency since October 2017, with attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

After several months of relative normality in the affected districts, Cabo Delgado province has seen new movements and attacks by rebel groups for a few months now, which have limited circulation to a few points on the few tarmac roads that give access to several districts.

The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021, with support first from Rwanda, with more than 2,000 troops, and from the Southern African Development Community, liberating districts near natural gas projects.

Source: Lusa