Rebels kidnap ten persons in Mocimboa da Praia while Renamo dissidents kill in the centre of the country – report

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Rebels kidnap ten persons in Mocimboa da Praia while Renamo dissidents kill in the centre of the country – report

4:28 CAT | 29 Jun 2020

The insurgents who this Saturday reoccupied the capital of Mocimboa da Praia district, just three months after their previous invasion of the town, kidnapped eight girls, a trader and a religious leader, residents have told VOA.

The attack sent hundreds of people fleeing on boats and on foot, and the intervention of South African helicopters.

“They kidnapped people and left them at a mosque in the town and put others in the warehouse of businessman Imo,” Mocimboa da Praia residents Assane reported, shortly before communications were interrupted.

ALSO READ: Insurgents stage ‘very violent’ attack close to gas projects in Mozambique – Reuters

“They (insurgents) entered the town at 5:00 a.m. and started shooting. Everyone who could, fled to the coast, and took any boat they could find,” says Amina Juma, a displaced woman who arrived in Pemba on Sunday.

Reuters news agency had previously reported that suspected Islamic insurgents had attacked Mocimboa da Praia on Saturday, citing police and security sources. The town is just 60 kilometres from the multi-million dollar natural gas projects led by Total and ExxonMobil.

ALSO READ: Mozambique: New clashes in Mocímboa da Praia, population flees – Lusa

The Reuters police source said that the latest attack was “very violent”, and that the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS) had suffered several casualties.

“The FDS is fighting a fierce fight,” the source said, adding that communications was now cut off.

A security source confirmed Saturday’s attack and said that helicopters operated by South African private security firm Dyck Advisory Group had reacted once visibility conditions improved.

Local residents quoted by the press suspect that many may have died.

Defence Ministry and Police spokesmen did not immediately respond to news agency Reuters’ request for comment. Neither did oil companies Exxon and Total respond to requests for comment, sent outside business hours.

New attack in the centre of the Country

A child was killed and four adults seriously injured during an armed attack on a passenger bus on Sunday, June 28, in a village five kilometres distant from Inchope, next to the EN1, in the Mozambican province of Manica.

Several witnesses told VOA that the bus was “machine gunned” at about 06:00 local time in the ‘Arco Íris’ [‘Rainbow’] area, in the district of Gondola (Manica province). Several persons were injured, the child could not resist and died on the way to hospital.

“Suddenly we heard gunshots, in the middle of the commotion, I realised that I had been hit with a bullet in the arm,” Noémio Gonçalves told VOA, a survivor VOA found receiving medical care at the district hospital in Gondola.

The bus on the route from Nampula (North) to Maputo (South), stayed overnight in the village of Gorongosa, from where it left at around 5:00 a.m. on Sunay. It was attacked in an area without a history of ambushes next to the EN1, the main road connecting the South and North Mozambique.

This is the first attack on the EN1, almost a week after the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy to Mozambique, Mirko Manzoni, announced in an interview with a private television station, STV, that attempts to negotiate with the Renamo dissident leader had failed. Mariano Nhongo and his group are accused by the authorities of carrying out armed attacks in central Mozambique.