Mozambique: Locals flee after reports of terrorists approach

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Mozambique: Locals flee after reports of terrorists approach

2:34 CAT | 21 Aug 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. Mueda district, in Cabo Delgado province. [Image: Wikimedia Commons]

The population of Homba, in the north of the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, on Sunday abandoned the village for neighbouring communities after warnings of an unspecified group of terrorists moving around the area, according to local sources.

“Yesterday [Sunday], we didn’t sleep well in the village of Homba because the terrorists were travelling in the Nambaia area. From Nambaiaia to Homba, it’s very close,” the same Local Force source, who is fighting the terrorists, told Lusa from the community of Nanhala.

The population left the village of Homba on Sunday, heading for the neighbouring communities of Nanhala and Chudi, after reports of the group’s approach.

The same source explained that the alleged insurgents were spotted on the ground by loggers who operate in the forests of Nambaiaia, the boundary between Homba village, Mueda and Mandela, Muidumbe district when they were heading towards Homba, who managed to alert the population.

“Thanks to the loggers, the population learnt about it, but we don’t know where they went. According to them, they were mostly men, a few women and children,” he concluded.

Another source on the ground told Lusa that it could be a group fleeing from Mucojo, on the coast of Macomia, where the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) have been stepping up combat action in recent days.

“Our military colleagues are fighting well, I think it’s a reflection of that. They must be fleeing from there, and we here are aware of our role, which is to protect the population that is returning,” said the same source.

Some families told Lusa of their despair about the future in the village of Homba, where they left just as life was beginning to return to normal after almost six years of attacks.

“We have some trade centres up and running. Some of us were already clearing our land for cultivation,” lamented an elderly man, aged 67, who was interviewed by Lusa.

The community of Homba is more than 50 kilometres from Mueda district headquarters, and in early 2022 the village was the target of rebel attacks, forcing the population to flee to the communities of Nanhala, Chudi, Chapa and Mueda – headquarters.

Cabo Delgado province has been facing armed insurgency for almost six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021, with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects, but new attacks have emerged in the south of the region and in neighbouring Nampula province.

The conflict in northern Mozambique has already displaced one million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.

This month, the extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on the Kathupa base, in the interior of the Macomia district, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, saying that 10 soldiers from Mozambique’s FDS were killed.

The attack, on 8 August, was claimed in a statement released by the fundamentalist group’s Amaq agency, which said that seven other DSF soldiers were injured and included a photograph of the victims and seized material, the authenticity of which could not be verified.

The Mozambican authorities have so far not confirmed the incident.

It was apparently an attempt to recover the base, which had been captured from terrorists by the FDS since last year.

The president of Mozambique said on 10 August that the FDS had expelled the terrorists from all the districts they occupied in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

“Our Defence and Security Forces, also assisted by the local force, continue to relentlessly pursue the terrorists, having evicted them from all the districts they occupied until 2021,” said Filipe Nyusi, in Maputo, at a reception for his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, on a state visit to the country.

“Efforts are continuing to fight the terrorists who are attacking some districts of Cabo Delgado province, combining multilateral and bilateral cooperation, from SADC, through SAMIM [Southern African Military Mission], and Rwanda, respectively,” said the Mozambican President.

Source: Lusa