Mozambique: Ibo administrator orders public servants back to work – AIM report

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Mozambique: Ibo administrator orders public servants back to work – AIM report

4:09 CAT | 24 Apr 2020

File photo: kasakastini.com

The administration of Ibo district in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has issued a circular ordering all staff of the public administration who abandoned the district because of terrorist attacks to return to work, the independent television station STV reported on Friday.

Many residents of Ibo fled the district, taking boats for the provincial capital, Pemba, after islamist terrorists attacked Quirimba island on 10 April. In that attack, at least five people were killed, and the islamists attacked the local primary school, a health centre, the official residence of the head of the Quirimba administrative post, and destroyed an unspecified number of homes of the local population.

Panic spread from Quirimba to Ibo island itself, where some people also headed for the relative safety of Pemba. Now, the district administration claims the situation is under control and has ordered all public servants to return to work within six days. The circular did not say how many people have abandoned their posts.

On the mainland, the Mueda district administration sent out a similar circular. Public servants had fled from Mueda after the attack on the neighbouring district of Muidumbe on 7 April. At the time, the terrorists threatened that Mueda would be next.

But no islamist incursion into Mueda district happened, and the district administrator, Edson Lino, insists that the situation is calm. He told STV that 50 public servants had left their posts, but they obeyed the administration’s call to return and they are now back in their jobs.

But persuading teachers, health workers and other public servants to return to Ibo may prove more difficult, since armed violence has continued.

On 12 April, according to a report in Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, armed men opened fire on a boat carrying fishermen and traders from Pemba to Ibo and massacred 40 of them. Wreckage from the boat later washed up on the coast of Quissanga district.

This is clearly the same incident mentioned on Thursday at a press conference given by Jose Manteigas, the spokesperson for the main opposition party, Renamo. Giving the same date and time (12 April, 18.00), Manteigas claimed that members of the Mozambican armed forces (FADM) had fired on the boat. Manteigas gave the names of eight people who had been killed, including the Renamo head of mobilisation in Ibo district, Momade Chabane, and his son, Samuel Momade.

Eye-witnesses cited by “Carta de Mocambique”, said the attackers had worn FADM uniforms. This is not necessarily conclusive evidence of FADM guilt, since on occasion the islamists have been known to use stolen military uniforms.

Source: AIM