Mozambique: Population can return to Mocímboa da Praia after ‘mopping-up’ – Lusa

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Mozambique: Population can return to Mocímboa da Praia after ‘mopping-up’ – Lusa

8:12 CAT | 16 Aug 2021

Screen grab: TVM

The governor of Cabo Delgado said on Thursday that there are still no conditions for returning the population that fled armed attacks in Mocímboa da Praia as the mopping-up operations continue.

“The town of Mocímboa da Praia is free of terrorists. However, the two forces [of Mozambique and Rwanda] are in agreement with what we have issued: in the conditions in which the town is, we cannot advise our populations to return,” said Valige Tauabo, who visited the town of Mocímboa da Praia today.

At stake is the announcement, on Sunday, of the reconquest of the town of Mocímboa da Praia, considered by many the “base” of insurgent groups that have carried out armed attacks in Cabo Delgado since 2017.

The operation was conducted by a joint force comprising military personnel from Mozambique and Rwanda. Since the beginning of July, around 1,000 military and police personnel in Cabo Delgado support Mozambique in the fight against armed groups.

The first images released by the Mozambican press showed an almost ghost town with several destroyed properties, including hospitals, schools and businesses, and the port and airport facilities.

According to the governor of Cabo Delgado province, communities can only return to the town after the work of the joint force in the neighbourhoods around the town is concluded.

“Mopping-up is continuing,” stressed the provincial governor.

The coastal town of Mocímboa da Praia, one of the main towns in the north of Cabo Delgado province, was where the armed groups carried out their first attack in October 2017.

Mocímboa da Praia is located 70 kilometres south of the construction area of the natural gas exploration project led by several international oil companies and led by Total.

The town was invaded and occupied by rebels on 23 March last year, in an action later claimed by the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State. It was, on 27 and 28 June of that year, the scene of long clashes between government forces and insurgent groups, which led to the flight of a considerable part of the population.

As well as Rwanda, Mozambique now has support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in a mandate for a “joint force on standby” approved on 23 June at an extraordinary summit of the organisation in Maputo that discussed armed violence in that province, with military personnel from some member countries already on the ground

Following the attacks, which have terrorised Cabo Delgado province since 2017, there have been over 3,100 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and over 817,000 displaced people, according to the Mozambican authorities.

Source: Lusa