Mozambique: Young woman kidnapped in central Maputo - AIM report
A gang of Islamic fundamentalists attacked the village of Ncumbi, in Palma district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, on Sunday morning, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.
According to the paper’s sources, the raiding party consisted of about ten men, one armed with a machine gun and the others carrying machetes or similar weapons. They launched their attack on Ncumbi at about 01.00 in the morning, and killed a local trader who refused to let them into his stall.
“When the owner of the stall refused to open his shop, they got angry and burned it down. Then they took a machete and disembowelled the trader”, one source told “Mediafax” in a phone contact.
The attacking group was seeking food, and so they attacked a second shop elsewhere in the village and stole all the produce sold there.
The attack came on the final day of a visit to Cabo Delgado by President Filipe Nyusi, and just hours before he visited Palma town. This timing is not likely to be coincidental.
The police have so far said nothing about the Ncumbi raid. The spokesperson for the Cabo Delgado provincial police command, Augusto Guta, referred “Mediafax” to the General Command of the police in Maputo. But the spokesperson for the General Command, Inacio Dina, was also unavailable for comment.
However the paper’s sources told “Mediafax” that units of the Defence and Security Forces started a manhunt in Palma shortly after the attack, looking for the group that raided the village.
“Mediafax” assumed the attackers were part of the Islamist group that launched an abortive insurrection in the neighbouring district of Mocimboa da Praia on 5 October. So far 2014 alleged insurgents have been arrested – 182 Mozambicans and 32 Tanzanians – and a trial is expected to be held in the near future.
The group is known locally as “Al Shabaab”, although it does not seem to have any formal connection with the Somali terrorist organisation of that name. Its demands are familiar from extremist groups across the globe – it wants the imposition of sharia law, a ban on the sale of alcoholic drinks, and the removal of secular monuments and Christian crosses.
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