Africa-Press – Mozambique. At least four persons were burned to death after an attack by suspected terrorists in the village of Napala, in Cabo Delgado province, with four children also reported kidnapped, community sources told Lusa yesterday (26-10).
The attack, it is now known, took place between October 10 and 11 in a village in the administrative post of Chiúre Velho, 40 kilometres from the district headquarters town of Chiúre, in the south of the province, after residents has abandoned the area due to attacks by insurgent groups.
Meanwhile, despite the village’s lack of proper conditions, residents began returning and found a scene of destruction and death.
“We mourn the death of four elderly women. When the terrorists arrived, they killed them and burned down all the homes down,” said a local source, speaking from the Chiúre headquarters.
In Napala, according to local reports, more than 2,500 homes were burned down by these groups. of artisanal construction, affecting approximately 3,800 people. A local school was also set on fire, leaving more than 500 students without classes.
“They burned down the entire village. The remaining homes aren’t even enough,” another source complained.
In addition to the death and destruction, the terrorists are suspected of kidnapping four minors, aged 10 to 13.
“They took four children, whose whereabouts we still don’t know,” explained the source.
Gas-rich Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique, has been the target of extremist attacks for eight years, with the first attack recorded on October 5, 2017, in the district of Mocímboa da Praia.
The UN estimated on Tuesday that at least 44 people died and another 208,000 were affected in August by attacks by extremist groups in Cabo Delgado.
According to a field report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs According to the OCHA (Operation for Displacement and Resilience), Mozambique also reported a total of 111,393 displaced people as of August, the majority from Cabo Delgado (109,118), although movements of people were recorded in the provinces of Niassa and Nampula.
“Civilians continue to face serious security and protection risks, including kidnappings, looting, and threats,” the report states, adding that these incidents in August “resulted in 44 deaths and 101 abductions, including six children and five women”.
Furthermore, insecurity, combined with “significant” reductions in humanitarian funding, “severely” limited partners’ ability to reach affected populations.
“Violence against civilians, military operations, sightings of non-state armed groups, and rumours of kidnappings and ransom demands have made access unpredictable in the districts with the greatest severity of needs and incidents,” the report describes, adding that the situation resulted in the temporary suspension of missions. Humanitarian operations in rural areas of the districts of Macomia, Quissanga, Muidumbe, Mocímboa da Praia, Meluco, and Metuge in early August.
Nearly 93,000 people have fled Cabo Delgado and Nampula since late September due to the resurgence of attacks in northern Mozambique, doubling the number of displaced people in just a few days, according to previous data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
On October 6, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo described the attacks in Cabo Delgado as “barbaric acts” against “human dignity”.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) reports 6,257 deaths after eight years of attacks in Cabo Delgado, warning of ongoing instability.
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