Watch: Police confirm five deaths in Olumbe attack – AIM report

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Watch: Police confirm five deaths in Olumbe attack – AIM report

8:39 CAT | 17 Jan 2018

TVM (File photo)

The Mozambican police have confirmed that the armed group which attacked the Olumbe administrative post[ also spelt Olumbi, Ulumbi or Ulumbe] , in Palma district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, on Saturday night murdered five people.

A police spokesperson in Palma, cited in Tuesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, said a further 11 people were injured, eight of them seriously. Two motorbikes were set on fire and destroyed, one belonging to the head of the Olumbe administrative post, and the other to the local head of police.

The police spokesperson revealed there had been a second attack in the locality of Quissengue, in which 32 houses and three informal shops were burnt down. There are no reports of any deaths in Quissengue

The police say they cannot yet confirm whether the attackers belong to the same group that attacked police installations in the neighbouring district of Mocimboa da Praia on 5 October.

The Cabo Delgado police spokesperson, Augusto Guta, said the attacking group was armed with only one firearm, an AK-47 assault rifle, plus a number of knives and similar weapons. He believed that had looted shops because the group was short of food.

Despite the police reluctance to connect the Olumbe and Mocimboa da Praia attacks, local sources who spoke to “Mediafax”, have no doubt that all the attacks are the work of the same Islamic fundamentalist group. The group is known locally as “Al-Shabaab”, although it does not seem to have any organisational connection with the Somali terrorist group of that name.

Meanwhile, the general commander of the Mozambican police, Bernadino Rafael, on a visit to Tanzania, on Monday signed an agreement with his Tanzanian counterpart, Simon Nyankoro Sirro, for cooperation in the fight against terrorism, and cross-border crime.

The protocol signed by the two commanders states that the Mozambican and Tanzanian police “will cooperate in the fight against economic and financial crimes; corruption; counterfeit and forgery; the theft and trafficking of guns, munitions and explosives; the theft of radioactive, nuclear, biological or chemical materials; and armed robbery”.

The list of crimes that the two forces will cooperate against also includes people trafficking, illegal immigration, cyber crimes and stock theft.

Also Read: Mozambique and Tanzania coordinate interventions to combat terrorism and cross-border crime

Perhaps most important of all, the two police forces must give a combined response to incursions by terrorist groups. This clause will allow the Mozambican defence and security forces to call on Tanzanian for the fight against Islamic fundamentalists in Cabo Delgado.

Although most captured members of the group are Mozambicans, some are Tanzanian citizens.