MAPUTO, Mozambique
The Mozambican defence and security forces have killed at least 15 alleged terrorists who were trying to cross the Rovuma River into Tanzania, according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”.
The paper’s
sources said those shot dead were part of a group that had recently been
dislodged from a terrorist base. They headed north, and the defence forces
caught up with them on the south bank of the Rovuma, in the Pundanhar
administrative post in Palma district.
“Carta de
Mocambique” did not give an exact date for the clash, but it may have been one
of the operations mentioned by President Filipe Nyusi in his address to the
nation last Sunday, when he said that, following the defeat of the jihadists’ latest
attacks against Palma town, “patrolling and clean-up operations are continuing
along the Quionga-Pundanhar axis (north of the town)”.
“Carta de
Mocambique” also reports that terrorists attacked the villages of Mandimba and
Chacamba, in Nangade district, on Tuesday. The number of deaths in these raids
has yet to be confirmed. Survivors from the two villages fled to Nangade town.
In the
locality of Chai, in Macomia district, there was an intensive exchange of fire
between the islamists and local militia. The terrorists set one vehicle on
fire, but if they intended to occupy Chai, they failed.
Chai is of
historic importance, since it is the site of the first clash between guerrillas
of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) and the Portuguese authorities on
25 September 1964, at the start of the war for Mozambican independence.
Meanwhile,
on the Cabo Delgado coast, a humanitarian crisis is developing in Ibo district,
formed by several of the islands in the Qurimbas archipelago. Thousands of
people have fled from terrorist attacks on the mainland to the islands, where
they are living under miserable conditions, desperately short of food and clean
water.
Matemo
island has become home for many of the displaced people who fled from Palma
after the terrorist attack on the town on 24 March.
Speaking to
the independent television station STV, one of the displaced, Sumail Saide,
said “I came to Matemo 27 days ago, with my wife and four children, and we
never received any aid. We eat thanks to some people who occasionally give us a
kilo of rice or flour. And when there is nothing, we all go to sleep hungry”.
The
displaced in Matemo have no decent accommodation. Most of them sleep in
improvised shacks with thatched roofs. They also have no access to basic social
services. Halima Saide, a woman who was displaced from Palma, told STV “there
is a small health post, but it’s far away, and doesn’t have enough medicines.
Pregnant women can’t manage to walk there. We have no school here, and so the
children have stopped studying”.
The Ibo
district government admits that, even with the assistance of some humanitarian
organisations, it cannot solve the problems of the 35,000 displaced people now
living on the islands.
“We can’t
deal with all the problems”, said the Ibo district administrator, Issa
Tarmamade, “because of the large number of displaced people, and they all need
a little of everything. People are arriving at Matemo every day”.
Luisa Meque,
the chairperson of the Mozambican relief agency, the National Risk and Disaster
Management Institute (INGD) visited the islands this week, and promised
solutions for the displaced.
“We came
here to assess the situation, and now we know the reality experienced here on
Matemo”, said Meque. “We shall seek immediate solutions”.
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