Africa-Press – Mozambique. The governor of Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique, on Wednesday called on the residents of Ancuabe district to return to their homes, assuring that government forces have the situation under control after an armed attack on Sunday.
“Don’t stay in this public place, where children and even adults can get sick because of the cold, let’s go to our homes,” said Valige Tauabo, speaking to families who have been living out in the open since Sunday in the village of Metoro, which is 27 kilometres from Ancuabe, after an “incursion by terrorists”, the first into the district since armed attacks broke out in Cabo Delgado in 2017.
Tauabo said the defence and security forces control villages in the district targeted in an onslaught by an armed group on Sunday.
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In the village of Metoro, the ruler and his entourage did not find families from Nanduli, the village that was directly targeted by the attackers, but assured that the place is under control of government forces.
Valige Tauabo said that work is underway to locate the inhabitants of Nanduli with a view to organising their return to the village or relocation to another area.
Tauabo said he understood the atmosphere of fear of the residents of Ancuabe district, due to the terror caused by the action of armed groups in Cabo Delgado, although not all areas of the province are under attack.
To encourage the people of Ancuabe to return, the governor and his entourage took women and children in their protocol vehicles to their homes in the district that was attacked on Sunday.
In the attack on Nanduli, the armed group killed at least one person.
Three different local sources told Lusa that the attack happened during Sunday afternoon and that at least one of the community leaders was killed. Several houses (all of traditional construction) were destroyed or set on fire.
One of the residents, on the run, reported that she had been trying since Sunday afternoon to call her mother, with whom she used to live, but without success, adding that there are more people missing.
The village lies at the gates of the Quirimbas National Park, next to National Road 380, the only tarred road connecting the north and south of Cabo Delgado.
Nanduli is about 40 kilometres northeast of the main town of Ancuabe, on the border with the district of Quissanga.
Other districts in the central and southern part of the province, such as Macomia and Meluco, have suffered more attacks on local people since the beginning of the year.
It is estimated that the attacks are triggered by rebels fleeing the military offensive which has been underway since July 2021, with international support, in the extreme north of Cabo Delgado (Palma, Mocímboa da Praia and Muidumbe districts), in the area of the gas projects.
The province of Cabo Delgado is rich in natural gas, but terrorised since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
There are 784,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.
Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with Rwandan support later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has allowed areas where there was a rebel presence to recover, but their flight has provoked new attacks in other districts used as passage or temporary refuge.
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