Mozambique: Three kidnapped by terrorists in Nampipi, Metuge district – Lusa

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Mozambique: Three kidnapped by terrorists in Nampipi, Metuge district – Lusa

7:54 CAT | 18 Mar 2024

Image: Google Maps

People from Metuge district, in Cabo Delgado, today reported the abduction of three small-holder farmers in their Nampipi cultivation plots, allegedly by groups of insurgents active in the region.

A local source told Lusa that on Monday, nine people had left the Metuge headquarters town for their agricultural production fields in the Nampipi area, 60 kilometres away. However, towards evening, they were surprised in their huts by armed men, who abducted them by force.

“They were in separate huts, but close together for reasons of safety, when suddenly a group of armed men arrived and told them to follow them,” said the source, from Metuge.

Six of the nine in the group, he added, escaped because they had chosen to sleep in the forest and not in the huts.

“It was the terrorists, yes. I was hiding, not far away, when I realized that there were armed men taking my companions. Out of fear I couldn’t leave, but it hurt me not to have helped,” one of the group members said.

The group of smallholders, aged between 55 and 60 years old, had decided to go to the countryside, traveling a long distance through the interior of the district, even against the wishes of family members, who feared situations similar to the attack on the neighbouring village of Pulo on March 6, where six people died.

“I told my cousin not to go. He told me that he lives off production, he had no alternative but to produce and that the pests were finishing off the crops,” another source related.

Inhabitants are abandoning the villages of Walopwana and Muisse, also in Metuge district, due to the movement of terrorist groups.

Information from the local community obtained by Lusa indicates that, on March 9, terrorists abducted a person in the forests of Nampipi, whom they forced to pinpoint the location Walopwana, supposedly the next community to be attacked.

“The terrorists are among us, here – they haven’t gone far yet. They captured Mr. João, who was coming from his machamba [cultivation plot] and told him to show them the village of Walopwana. He was afraid to do so, because according to what they told him it would be the next point [target],” said a source from Metuge, who had abandoned his own field in the community of Muisse.

“Me, my wife and my children have been in Metuge since Wednesday. We wanted to go back, but the bandits still concern us,” the 55-year-old resident said.

On Sunday, an elderly couple left Metuge for their fields in Nampipi, more than 60 kilometres away, but turned back after encountering people from Walopwana and Muisse already fleeing, due to rumours of terrorist presence.

“We left Metuge for Nampipi, but 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 Metuge comes at a time when pests are already attacking crops, especially in the Nampipi area, which could compromise the food supply of the local population.

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

After several months of relative tranquillity in the districts affected by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, the province has for a few weeks now been registering new movements and attacks by rebel groups, which have circulation limited to some points on the few paved access roads.

Source: Lusa