MAPUTO, Mozambique
The jihadist groups who claim affiliation to the “Islamic State” (ISIS) terrorist network have boasted of murdering 70 people, in 27 attacks against what it described as “Christian towns” in Chiùre district, in the northern Mozambican province Cabo Delgado.
According to Thursday’s issue
of the independent newsheet “Carta de Moçambique”, citing the Islamic State
propaganda channels, the raiders destroyed 500 buildings, including houses,
churches and public facilities.
According to the Chiure
district administrator, Oliveira Amimo, the latest wave of terrorist attacks
began on 3 February, when jihadists entered the region, coming from the
neighbouring district of Mecufi.
The jihadists are thus
claiming to have undertaken 27 separate attacks in 25 days. The figure of 500
buildings destroyed is only possible, if most of them were houses – which, in
rural Mozambique, means simple huts. There are certainly nowhere near 500 churches
in Chiure.
ALSO READ: 67,000 displaced in Mozambique by latest wave of insurgent attacks – Government
“Carta de Mocambique” also
writes that the residents of Macomia district have been terrified since Monday
due to an alleged message from terrorists to the people of Mucojo
administrative post, promising to attack at any moment. Because of the threat,
some families are no longer sleeping in their homes or are spending sleepless
nights in the bush.
The terrorists are believed to
be hoping to find food supplies in Mucojo. “We don’t know when the attack will
come, but everyone is going anyway, even though we’re counting on the presence
of the soldiers. However, last year, they attacked Napulubo village, even
though troops were there”, one source said.
“That’s why I didn’t stay in
Macomia. They (the authorities) tell people to go to the town of Macomia, but
since the terrorists can reach almost anywhere, I chose to travel to Pemba (the
provincial capital) instead of staying in Macomia”, said another source.
According to government
figures, the latest wave of attacks by Islamist terrorists in Cabo Delgado has
displaced more than 60,000 people over the provincial boundary into the
neighboring province of Nampula.
However, on Thursday Defence
Minister Cristovao Chume downplayed the jihadist threat, and said there had
been no resurgence in terrorist activity.
Cited by the independent
television station STV, Chume said that what had really happened in Cabo
Delgado was that small groups had left their bases and moved to the southern
districts of the province to create panic among the population.
This was quite unlike previous
terrorist offensives, in which district capitals such as the town of Palma had
been seized. Chume guaranteed that this would not happen again.
Meanwhile, the Mozambican
Relief Agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), has warned
displaced people to be on their guard against possible infiltration by
jihadists.
INGD chairperson Luisa Meque,
speaking on Wednesday to a crowd of displaced people, who had fled over the
provincial boundary to Erati district, in Nampula province, said “We must
continue to be vigilant, to know who is on our side. Otherwise, we might be
fleeing from Chiure to Erati in the company of those bandits”.
Meque stressed that the food
aid distributed in the accommodation centres in Erati was intended exclusively
for those who had fled from Cabo Delgado. She warned against residents of Erati
passing themselves off as displaced people in order to obtain extra food.
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