Three wounded in attack in centre of Mozambique

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Three wounded in attack in centre of Mozambique

2:11 CAT | 25 Feb 2016

In File Club of Mozambique

Three people were injured yesterday Wednesday, including a child, when an attack attributed to Renamo destroyed two vehicles in the Zove vicinity of Muxungué district in central Mozambique, witnesses have told Lusa.

The attack occurred around 11.00 a.m. when armed men opened fire on a military convoy in the Save-Muxungué stretch of the EN1 in Sofala province.

“The column stopped and the armed forces entered the woods in pursuit. We stopped for 40 minutes and then resumed. A child and two men were wounded,” a witness on a Vilanculos to Beira said.

A journalist who was travelling in the column told Lusa that the attackers strafed the column from a short distance and there was an exchange of gunfire between the defense and security forces and the attackers.

“The column then continued to Muxungué, where it arrived at 1.00 p.m.,” he said, describing the atmosphere among the armed forces and travelers as one of “terror and nervousness”.

Lusa was unable to contact emergency services at Muxungué Rural Hospital, where the victims were transferred.

Speaking to Lusa, Sofala police spokesman Sididi Paulo said he was still collecting details of the attack and would issue a statement today (Thursday).

This is the third attack in two days on convoys escorted by the police on two sections of the EN1, where a system of compulsory military escorts for civilian vehicles was imposed by the government.

According to the Sofala police on Tuesday armed Renamo men attacked separately compulsory military escorts in two sections of the N1, the main road of Mozambique, injuring one person and damaging three cars,

The first attack targeted a column of 90 vehicles in the vicinity of Zove, Muxungué, and the second occurred an hour later, about 300 kilometres north, in Nhamapadza-Caia, on a convoy of 61 cars.

A witness told Lusa that an armoured escort was immobilized in the second after being hit by the attackers, but police have not confirmed this information.

Mozambique is experiencing a situation of political uncertainty for months and leader of Renamo threatens to seize power in six northern and central provinces of the country, where the movement claimed victory in the general elections of October 2014.

The last few weeks have been marked by an escalation of political violence, with mutual accusations of attacks, kidnappings and assassinations.

Renamo recently asked for the mediation of South African President Jacob Zuma, and the Catholic Church in the dialogue with the government, which has been blocked for several months.

The President Filipe Nyusi has reiterated his willingness to meet with the leader of Renamo, but Afonso Dhlakama believes that there is nothing to talk about after Frelimo rejecting the timely revision of the Constitution to accommodate the new administrative regions claimed by the opposition and says that he will resume dialogue after the seizure of power in the centre and north of the country.

Source:

Lusa