Mozambique: Witnesses report deaths and destruction of houses in Palma – Lusa report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Witnesses report deaths and destruction of houses in Palma – Lusa report

6:46 CAT | 28 May 2021

in file CoM

Clashes between insurgents and Mozambique’s Defence and Security Forces (FDS) in Palma caused an unconfirmed number of deaths in the lower part of the town over the weekend, along with the destruction of several houses, residents told Lusa on Wednesday.

Local information suggests nine dead – four civilians and five rebels according to some sources – while others report the death of nine civilians and a larger number of insurgents killed in a pursuit operation subsequently mounted by the FDS.

One resident said he lost a family member during the attack. Lusa tried to obtain information from the FDS, but so far without success.

The unrest was caused by a group of armed rebels who entered the lower part of Palma on Saturday night and burned down 14 houses in the Quelimane neighbourhood, other sources, including the inhabitant of one of the houses, report.

The raid also resulted in the destruction of a mosque in the Quilaua neighbourhood, they added.

Mozambican forces in the area confronted the armed group, which left the district headquarters town through the area that serves as access to Quionga, heading north.

Problems with mobile networks since Sunday have hampered communication with Palma, which supports the Quitunda coverage area, six kilometres to the south, next to the gas project site suspended after the March 24 attack on Palma.

Armed groups have terrorised Cabo Delgado since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State, in a wave of violence that has already caused more than 2,500 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and displaced 714,000 people, according to the Mozambican government.
The most recent attack, on March 24, was carried out against the town of Palma, causing dozens of deaths and injuries in numbers yet to be ascertained.

Mozambican authorities regained control of the town, but the attack led oil company Total to indefinitely abandon the main construction site of the gas project scheduled to start production in 2024, on which many of Mozambique’s expectations for economic growth in the next decade are based.

Source: Lusa