Mozambique: Violent demonstrations continue to prevent normal operation of toll roads - AIM
Mozambique. Several missing after ambush in Cabo Delgado – Lusa
4:17 CAT | 14 Sep 2020
File photo: DW
Several people are missing after two vehicles carrying both passengers and goods were ambushed by armed groups in northern Mozambique on Saturday, family members travelling in the vehicles have told Lusa.
The vehicles were travelling from Palma to Mueda along a dust road when they were attacked near Pundanhar, about 40 kilometres from Palma.
One passenger, who was travelling to Montepuez with two children, is still unaware of where his offspring are after shooting broke out and he fled to Pundanhar, one report relates.
Another man, travelling in the back of a truck while his wife and two children rode in the driver’s cab, still doesn’t know where they are following the attack.
According to passengers’ reports, the attackers were wearing uniforms similar to those of Mozambican military personnel and ordered the vehicles to stop. The first vehicle failed to stop, and the two following it were shot at, and one of them set on fire.
In Palma, family members of the passengers asked the authorities to help them return to the site of the attack, but were unable to do so for security reasons, sources in the village told Lusa.
Military sources contacted by Lusa promised to forward any information they have about the incident by Monday (today).
Palma is the district capital, and nearest to the largest private investment in Africa – the natural gas megaproject led by Total, currently under construction and scheduled to start production in 2024.
The road where the attack took place runs along the border with Tanzania, and has hitherto been considered the only relatively safe land route to Palma, given that insurgent groups have made it risky to travel south on the only asphalted road in the province.
Cabo Delgado has been in a state of armed insurgency for three years, now classified by the Mozambican government and international partners as terrorism, whose origin is still debated and which has evolved this year into a humanitarian crisis which has killed more than 1,000 and internally displaced 300,000 persons.
Vehicle attacked in Palma- AIM report
A group of armed men, presumed to be islamist terrorists, attacked a passenger vehicle on Saturday morning in Palma district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.
The vehicle was attacked in the Pundanhar administrative post, on the dirt road that links Palma to Nangade district, and then goes on to Mueda.
As the vehicle approached Pundanhar, a group of armed men opened fire. The paper’s sources said that some occupants of the vehicle were killed, but could not give an exact number for the fatalities.
The vehicle was set on fire, and two people injured in the attack were taken to the Nangade health centre.
The sources say that the Mozambican defence and security forces reacted promptly, and this may have saved other vehicles using the road. Survivors of the attack were given lifts to Nangade in the other vehicles.
Before the Saturday attack, this road was regarded as reasonably safe. People wishing to reach the provincial capital, Pemba, can take this road to Mueda, and then travel southwards to Pemba.
The direct road, national highway EN 380, has been blocked by the terrorists, who have occupied the town of Mocimboa da Praia for the past month.
Not all of Mocimboa da Praia district is under jihadist control. “Carta de Mocambique” reports an attack on Maputo village in Mocimboa da Praia last Friday, apparently designed to drive the last remaining residents out of the village. There were similar attacks against Tete village, also in Mocimboa da Praia, and Mute village in Palma.
Last Thursday, the terrorists showed that the islands off the Cabo Delgado coast, are not immune to attack. Raiders crossed from the mainland and attacked Vamizi island in the Quirimbas Arcipelago, where they burnt down huts and tourist resorts.
On the same day, terrorist groups attacked Unambo and Olumboa villages in Macomia district, burning down houses, and killing one person.
Source: Lusa
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