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Mozambique: Muidumbe district capital retaken from terrorists – AIM report
4:19 CAT | 20 Nov 2020
The general commander of the Mozambican police, Bernadino Rafael, announced on Thursday that the defence and security forces have retaken the capital of Muidumbe district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Islamist terrorists mounted an offensive into Muidumbe in the first half of this month. Between 31 October and 11 November, the jihadists struck at 11 Muidumbe villages. A report in the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique” said the death toll could have run into hundreds.
Cited by Mozambican Television (TVM), Rafael said the defence forces had retaken the district capital, but gave few details. 16 terrorists are said to have died in the clashes.
“We have completed a stage of our work, but it is not the end,” said Rafael. “Our mission is progressive and continuous with a view to pacifying our country”.
He added that “The terrorists are in trouble and have nothing to eat.”. He said the defence forces had destroyed terrorist food supplies in Muiduimbe – six bags of rice and more than 350 kilos of dried fish, looted from local people.
On Tuesday, addressing a military parade in the neighbouring district of Mueda, Rafael denied claims of divisions inside the defence and security forces.
“Those who claim we are divided are going to lose”, he said, “because we have a single mission and vision: to defend our territorial integrity, our national sovereignty and our borders, and to protect Mozambicans”.
It was the task of the defence and security forces, he stressed, to protect the public and establish the conditions for freedom of movement. He urged the forces to perform their duties ““with zeal and responsibility”.
Mozambique police say northern village, site of reported beheadings, retaken from insurgents – Reuters
Over 1,000 Mozambique troops on Thursday recaptured the northern village of Muidumbe from Islamist insurgents, police general commander Bernardino Rafael said, killing 16 and destroying some of their logistics.
Mozambique’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, home to gas developments worth some $60 billion, is grappling with an insurgency linked to Islamic State that has gathered pace this year, with insurgents regularly taking on the army and seizing entire towns.
Speaking to troops in a field in Muidumbe, an area where local media reported a spate of beheadings by insurgents last week, Rafael congratulated the men for their victory but warned they had not won yet.
“We marched and arrived in Muidumbe district headquarters, we expelled those who had occupied it,” he said in footage broadcast by state broadcaster TVM following the operation.
“Congratulations to our brave men… [but] what we achieved up to now is not a victory, we achieved one step of our work,” he said, adding that insurgents should stop the violence and speak with the government, which is open to dialogue.
The insurgent group, Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama, staged their first attack in 2017. Known at first mainly for crude beheadings, they declared allegiance to Islamic State in June 2019 and since then have massively stepped up their attacks in both scale and frequency.
In August, they captured the key town of Mocimboa da Praia, only around 60 kilometres from the gas developments. The government has yet to announce its recapture.
Security analysts, who can be sceptical of government claims of victory, said an offensive had taken place in Muidumbe.
Jasmine Opperman, analyst at the Armed Conflict Location and Data Project, said some nearby villages at least had been recaptured, though many locals were still hiding in the bush.
She added this had more symbolic importance for the government than strategic: “The government could not allow a second Mocimboa da Praia.”
Source: AIM / TVM / Reuters
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