MAPUTO, Mozambique
Three minors from the same family disappeared from a village in northern Mozambique on the same night that an unknown armed group attacked the area, relatives of the victims told Lusa on Tuesday.
“My nephews disappeared from
our village, Nova Zambézia, on Tuesday night (14-03),” an uncle of the boys
said.
The man suspects that the
minors – aged 11, 14 and 16 – were kidnapped by the rebel group that invaded a military
base there on the same night.
“We have no information about
anything, we are waiting for them to reappear soon,” the man says, expressing
hope that “if they are in the possession of terrorists, they will not harm
them”.
This is the most recent case
of the frequent abduction of children and young people in Cabo Delgado over the
four and a half years of the insurgency there, and in which young people and
minors have been used as soldiers by insurgent forces.
Signs of violence persist in
Macomia district, despite the military offensive against the rebels, other
local sources told Lusa.
The town of Macomia has
continued to see the arrival, in recent days, of families fleeing clashes in
the Nova Zambézia area.
“We are in a bad situation:
even those who used to live in the camps, tending their machambas, are
leaving,” one source said.
“Children do not go to school;
we are trying to reintegrate them here in Macomia, but we are afraid of being
attacked again here,” the same source concluded.
The town of Macomia, 200
kilometres from the provincial capital, Pemba, was first invaded by rebel
groups and occupied for a few days in 2020, leading to an exodus of residents.
Since July, 2021, when the
foreign-backed military offensive disrupted the insurgency, scattered groups of
rebels have roamed parts of Cabo Delgado, such as Macomia and Meluco, launching
ad hoc attacks on villages.
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