Mozambique: journalists fleeing terrorists reach safety – AIM report

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Mozambique: journalists fleeing terrorists reach safety – AIM report

4:58 CAT | 20 Nov 2020

File photo: O País

All nine journalists who fled into the bush when terrorists overran the St. Francis of Assisi community radio station in Muidumbe district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, have reached safety, according to a statement from the National Forum of Community Radios (FORCOM).

Islamist bandits occupied the Catholic parish church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Muambala village, where the radio has its premises, on 31 October. The nine journalists took their families and fled into the bush, believed to be heading for the relatively safe districts of Mueda and Montepuez.

A FORCOM press release announced that the journalists “are now in apparently safe areas after surviving for 15 days in the bush”. They had escaped despite the “intense attacks” launched by the jihadists in Muidumbe. The release did not state exactly where the journalists had taken refuge.

One of the journalists, Moises Jose, said that the islamists who attacked Muambala kidnapped a large number of women, including his 27 year old daughter. However, she succeeded in escaping and joined her father in the bush.

Jose recalled that, on the day of the attack, “When they began to shoot, I and two other colleagues were preparing to go to the radio, but we had to drop everything and run with our families into the bush. In the place where we took refuge for some days, there were many decomposing bodies”.

Another of the journalists who escaped, Beatriz Joao, said that the jihadists have turned the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church into a military base.

“They abandoned the previous place where they had set up camp, because of the smell of the bodies lying in the streets”, she said. “The situation is out of control. They are many children alone and lost in the bush. I crossed paths with many of them when I was walking for kilometres towards Montepuez”.

FORCOM said it has been providing logistical support so that the journalists could reach relatively safe zones. The main immediate problem they face is a shortage of food.

Source: O País