Watch: Number of suspected islamists killed rises to nine – Mozambique

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Watch: Number of suspected islamists killed rises to nine – Mozambique

8:15 CAT | 05 Jun 2018

Photo: TVM

The number of islamic fundamentalists killed by the Mozambican defence and security forces in Palma district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, has risen to nine, according to a report on the independent television channel, STV.

The defence forces were clearly reacting to the atrocities of the previous weekend, when the islamists, known locally as “Al-Shabaab”, beheaded ten people from the Palma villages of 25th June and Monjane.

According to a soldier who spoke to STV, an eleventh person was killed on the road between Palma and the neighbouring district of Mocimboa da Praia. The murderers left a note pinned to the body, saying “we shall return”.

On Friday soldiers in plain clothes mixed with the local population near the 25th June village. In the late afternoon they surprised a group of islamists as they were cooking a meal, and shot two of the suspects dead. They mounted a second ambush in the evening, in which a further seven alleged terrorists died.

According to a note from the press office of the General Command of the Mozambican police, among the goods seized at the two ambush sites were one AK-47 assault rifle, an ammunition clip containing 29 bullets, four machetes, spears, arrows, several copies of the Koran, a cell phone battery charger, cigarette lighters, and various documents, including a Tanzanian passport..

There have also been islamist attacks in Macomia district. On 16 May two peasant farmers were murdered in the Quiterajo administrative post, about 90 kilometres from Macomia town. This led dozens of people to flee from Quiterajo, abandoning their homes and crops and seeking refuge in the district capital.

STV reports that, while life seems to go on as normal in the towns of Palma, Mocimboa da Praia and Macomia, in the villages, residents stay at home after nightfall in what the STV reporter called “an undeclared curfew”.