Mozambique: City Council interrupts 'Casa Macamo' demolition in Maputo
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The Mozambican police authorities have captured a man in the Ancuabe district who is suspected of carrying out surveillance in favour of terrorist groups operating in Cabo Delgado province, community sources told Lusa on Monday.
Speaking to Lusa, a community leader from Sunate, a town also known as Silva Macua, in Ancuabe, confirmed that the alleged member of the terrorists served as a vigilante to control the movements of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) and the public.
“Yesterday [Sunday] a member of the terrorists was captured, he was doing surveillance work to inform his colleagues about the movements of the FDS and the public. He was found on top of a tree, near the vegetable fields, just a few metres from the Sunate town centre,” said a community leader on condition of anonymity.
He added that the suspect, who only speaks the local Kimwani language, when approached by the authorities claimed that he was watching the movements of the Defence and Security Forces and the public to update his colleagues, at a time when the military is trying to maintain the siege against insurgent groups.
“He only speaks Kimwani and confessed that he was there to check on the movements of the Defence and Security Forces and the public so that the group wouldn’t be at risk,” said the same source.
Last Friday, a group of almost 50 terrorists was seen by the local residents crossing the National Road 1 (N1), between the villages of Nanlia and Impriri, in the district of Metuge, according to the same community leader, with local sources suspecting that the group was heading for the neighbouring province of Nampula, allegedly to recruit new members.
The movement of terrorist groups in recent days has also been observed in the Quissanga district, near the vegetable fields next to the Metuge district, and has created panic and led the local residents of Nampipi to abandon their activities.
Local and popular leaders admit that the movement of terrorists is linked to the persecution imposed by the defence and security forces in the districts of Macomia, Quissanga and Muidumbe.
On Friday, Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi visited a Rapid Intervention Force (FIR) position in the Metuge district of Cabo Delgado province, which has been plagued by actions by armed groups, acknowledging that the terrorists are now trying “other forms of destabilisation”.
Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency for six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State, which has led to a military response since July 2021, with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects.
The conflict has already displaced one million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
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