Mozambique: Population abandons villages and agricultural plots for fear of attacks

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Mozambique: Population abandons villages and agricultural plots for fear of attacks

3:09 CAT | 12 Mar 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

The inhabitants of Walopwana and Muisse in Metuge district, Cabo Delgado province, are abandoning their villages and agricultural fields in fear of the terrorist group that attacked the village of Pulo on Wednesday.

Information from the community confirmed today by Lusa indicates that, on Saturday, insurgents captured a member of the public in a ‘machamba’ in Nampipi forest, forcing him to pinpoint the community of Walopwana, supposedly the next village to be attacked.

“The terrorists are among us here, they haven’t gone far yet. On Saturday, they captured a man who was coming from his machamba and told him to show them Walopwana village. He did so, out of fear. According to what he was told, it would be the next target,” a local source, who had abandoned his own plot in Muisse, told Lusa from the town of Metuge.
Some people from the communities of Walopwana and Muisse, just over 50 kilometres from the district headquarters town, have already decided to abandon their villages and machambas, fearing the presence of terrorist groups.

“Me, my wife and my children have been in Metuge town since Wednesday. We wanted to go back, but the bandits are still bothering us,” complained one 55-year-old man.

On Sunday, an elderly couple left Metuge to go to Nampipi, a 60-kilometre journey, to take care of the four-hectare agricultural field, but found themselves having to turn back, after meeting people from Walopwana and Muisse fleeing in the face of rumours of the presence of insurgents.

“We didn’t continue – we found many people from Muisse and Walopwana already fleeing to Metuge,” the 67-year-old man said.

The attack on Pulo, Metuge district, comes at a time when pests are attacking farmers’ crops, especially in the Nampipi area, already threatening the harvest even as farmers flee.

“There is a lot of production that will be lost in the fields, because terrorists are circulating exactly in the areas where there is a lot of food,” the farmer explained.

Source: Lusa