Africa-Press – Mozambique. At least 18 members of the peasant militia known as the Naparamas were killed on Monday by a group of islamist terrorists in the village of Melija, Chiúre district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.
According to Friday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Carta de Moçambique”, citing local sources, the victims were caught in an ambush planned by the terrorists when they realized that they were being pursued.
According to sources, the victims’ bodies had remained at the crime scene since Wednesday, awaiting recovery for their funerals. Another resident confirmed that, in addition to the dead, others suffered serious and minor injuries and were receiving medical care at the Chiúre hospital.
Local residents also said that, since Tuesday, there are reports circulating in the town of Chiúre, pointing out that more members of the peasant militia were killed in villages of the administrative posts of Ocua and Catapua.
The security situation in Chiúre has continued to deteriorate since last Thursday’s attack, in which insurgents temporarily occupied the Chiúre Velho administrative post, and raised the Islamic State flag at the local police station. On Monday, the same group carried out further incursions in several villages across the district.
The Naparamas first came to prominence in the late 1980s, during the war of destabilisation, when they were defending peasant communities in Nampula and the neighbouring province of Zambezia against the then rebel movement Renamo. At that time, they were in an informal alliance with the Mozambican Armed Forces (FAM/FPLM).
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