MAPUTO, Mozambique
Islamist militants occupied a key port in gas-rich northern Mozambique on Wednesday following days of attacks claimed by an Islamic State-affiliated group, a military source and local media said.
"The port of Mocimboa da Praia was
captured by the terrorists at dawn," the Moz24Horas website reported,
while a military source told AFP that the small town and its port had
"fallen".
The assault is the latest in an intensifying
insurgency in the country's north since 2017 which has killed more than 1,000
people and complicated plans to develop its offshore gas reserves.
Mozambique's defence forces (FDS) confirmed
that "terrorists" had launched "sequenced attacks" on
several villages surrounding the port over the past week in an attempt to
occupy the town.
"At the moment, there are ongoing actions
to neutralise the terrorists that are using populations in the affected areas
as shields," the FDS said in a statement.
Mocimboa da Praia lies less than 80
kilometres (50 miles) south of Afungi peninsula where a liquefied natural gas
(LNG) facility, one of Africa's biggest single investment projects, is located.
The port is currently a major traffic hub for
the gas project.
The military source said that during
Wednesday's assault a rocket-propelled grenade sank a boat owned by former
president Armando Guebuza.
"The situation is complicated," the
source said.
Under Guebuza, Mozambique secretly borrowed
about $2 billion from Credit Suisse and Russia's VTB Bank to finance maritime
surveillance and buy military and tuna fishing vessels from Privinvest in
2013 and 2014.
But the government only disclosed the debt in
2016 -- a development that plunged the poor, donor-dependent southern African
country into its worst-ever financial crisis.
Attacks in the northern region have already
killed at least 1,300 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location &
Event Data Project (ACLED).
Displaced people number more than 250,000,
according to aid organisations working locally.
In its latest weekly report released on
Wednesday, ACLED said "insurgents and government security forces have been
in more or less constant running battles in the area" for the past week.
The attacks started in 2017 in Mocimboa da
Praia and have since spread to massive swathes of Cabo Delgado province.
The latest attack -- the third on the town this
year -- was claimed by the Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP).
The IS-affiliated group has the stated goal of
establishing a caliphate in the region.
ISCAP has claimed several attacks since June
2019 via social media, often posting images of slain soldiers and seized
weapons.
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