Mozambique: Updates on Palma – Lusa report

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Mozambique: Updates on Palma – Lusa report

3:18 CAT | 26 Mar 2021

Image: Google Earth

The Portuguese in Palma district involved in gas projects in northern Mozambique are safe and sound after an armed attack on the town, a source monitoring the situation told the Portuguese News Agency Lusa on Friday.

At least two Portuguese nationals were in Palma when armed groups invaded on Wednesday, and they took refuge in a hotel, along with around 200 people of various nationalities, he said.

The town is used as a base for several companies and staff due to investments underway there, including the gas project led by Total the largest private investment currently underway in Africa.

Meanwhile, people have been taken to safety at the gas project site in the Afungi peninsula, seven kilometres south of Palma, by air and sea transport.

The situation in the Afungi precinct remains secure, the area not yet hit by the rebel onslaught, the same source said, noting that the complex has benefited from increased security from Mozambican forces for several weeks – as announced by the government and Total, the oil company heading the project.

Also read: Mozambique: Police confirm clash with terrorists at Quitunda – AIM report

Despite many attempts, Lusa has not yet been able to obtain any information from Total.

The [LNG project] Afungi precinct is an area of several hectares, a kind of small town with workshops, accommodation and offices in modules, and capable of accommodating hundreds of people, with its own aerodrome and sea pier.

Some areas visited by Lusa in 2020 have security towers between barbed wire fences.

Next door, is the new resettlement village of Quitunda, to where residents of the villages within the project area were relocated.

Since Wednesday, this village and the Afungi peninsula have been attracting thousands of Palma residents seeking safe haven from the attacks.

Sources told Lusa that gunshots continued to be heard in the town’s central street this Friday morning, where the banks and main commercial establishments are located.

The same sources also report that different branches of the Defence and Security Forces are reinforcing the region.

Contacted by Lusa, an official Ministry of Defence source referred any updates on the situation to a later point in time.

Mobile communications services remain cut off in Palma. There is still no information on casualties or damage caused by the attack, the most serious near the gas projects in three and a half years of armed insurgency.

Source: Lusa