Mozambique: Gunmen attack police position in Moatize

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Mozambique: Gunmen attack police position in Moatize

12:45 CAT | 02 Aug 2016

Voa

A group of armed men yesterday attacked a police position in Tete province’s Moatize district and set fire to a car, 48 hours after two previous attacks in Zambezia and Niassa.

According to Tete police command spokesman Luis Nudia, an unknown number of armed opposition party men opened fire on a policeman position in Mboza, Moatize, on the road to Malawi.

“The attack on the police position occurred at dawn and caused material damage, with the destruction of a parked vehicle,” Nudia said. Police on the scene returned fire.

Recently, gunmen stormed a health facility in Banga in Tsengano district (Tete province) and made off with medicines, and on Sunday, armed Renamo men stormed the village of Maiaca in Niassa, northern Mozambique, and attacked the health centre, the police post and the administrator’s residence.

Witnesses said that Sunday’s attack was carried out at dawn by a group of 12 Renamo men, nine of them armed. It is the second attack in a week in Maua district, where incidents of political violence have so far been a comparative rarity, and has forced the provincial police command to beef up security in the region.

The attackers took medicines from the health centre, uniforms from the PRM facilities, where they burned files and other goods, and appliances from the residence of the local administrator, which was partially destroyed, the witnesses reported.

On Saturday a group of 20 Renamo armed men invaded the village headquarters of Mopeia district, Zambezia province, in central Mozambique, and occupied the police station for an hour. Normality returned on the late afternoon after the departure of the armed group and the return of the population who had fled in panic at dawn.

“We recorded two deaths, one an inmate in the cells who was just shot. Also the destruction of the fleet, as well as a police car and another belonging to the education services,” police spokesman Jacinto Felix told VOA. Medicines, sheets and bednets were looted from the health unit district.

Military instability has affected the central region of Mozambique for the last few months, with reports of clashes between the armed wing of Renamo and defence and security forces, and mutual allegations of abductions and assassination of political leaders.

President Filipe Nyusi recently made a meeting with Afonso Dhlakama conditional on an immediate ceasefire in the central and northern regions of Mozambique, but the Renamo leader ruled out any such possibility last week, arguing that attacks against Renamo’s positions had in fact intensified.

Renamo refuses to accept the results of the general elections in 2014, won officially by Frelimo, and demands the right to govern in six provinces where it claims victory in the poll.

Source: Voa Portugues