Mozambique: Dawn panic as insurgents reportedly seen in Intutupue, Cabo Delgado

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Mozambique: Dawn panic as insurgents reportedly seen in Intutupue, Cabo Delgado

11:03 CAT | 29 Jul 2024

Image: MapCarta

People from the community of Intutupue, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, told Lusa on Monday of moments of panic and agitation after seeing the presence of alleged terrorists in the village.

The movement of these supposed insurgent groups took place at around 03:00 on Sunday morning when some local people who were in agricultural production areas spotted men wielding firearms passing a few metres away.

‘There were many of them, and we don’t know what their destination was, but they were terrorists,’ a local source told Lusa from Intutupue.

The same source said that the previous day, before climbing Intutupue, these groups passed through Quissanga, where they closed some of the main access roads for a few hours, causing despair among the residents.

‘They closed some of the roads leading to the Quissanga district headquarters because the population thought they were going to the Tapata or Namoja area, but they didn’t,’ said the same source, adding that his uncle, who was in Quissanga, was one of those who fled because of the presence of the insurgents.

After this movement, some farmers and artisanal loggers from Intutupue, which is 70 kilometres from Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique, fled into the woods, fearing a possible attack.

‘There are people who have gone back to the village. We’re not sure where they’ve gone,’ explained a source from the Intutupue authority.

So far there have been no reports of fatalities among the residents of Intutupue and Quissanga, but fear has once again taken hold among these populations, especially given the regularity with which these groups have been circulating in the two towns.

Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion since October 2017, with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State.

The last major attack took place on 10 and 11 May on the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents sacking the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces.

The population of other districts in the province has reported the movement of these groups of insurgents, who cause panic as they pass through the forests, but there have been no reports of clashes, which is happening at a time when the peasants are trying to carry out harvest work in the fields.

The president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, said on 16 June that the action of the various defence forces had made it possible to wipe out ‘practically all’ the bases of the terrorist groups operating in Cabo Delgado.

‘The result of this combination of forces is surprising. They managed to disable the terrorists from all the towns and villages that had been occupied, destroyed practically all the enemy’s fixed bases, making them nomadic, and put many violent extremists out of action, including some of their main leaders,’ said Nyusi, in Mueda, Cabo Delgado province.

The head of state acknowledged the efforts of the Armed Defence Forces of Mozambique, together with the Rwandan military, the mission of southern African countries – which concluded its total withdrawal on July 4 – and the Local Force, made up of former fighters in the national liberation struggle, in combating these groups over the last six years.

‘They’re out there in the bush, but they no longer stay in one place because they’re afraid of being found,’ he said, renewing his appeal to the population “to continue to step up their vigilance”.

Source: Lusa