Africa-Press – Mozambique. At least one person died and another was injured after an attack by suspected rebels in Nampanha, the seat of the Muidumbe district in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, local sources told Lusa on Sunday.
“They attacked Nampanha and killed one person,” a paramilitary member of the Local Force told Lusa, speaking from Muidumbe.
The attack took place at 22:00 on Saturday, when the group entered the community — located around 25 kilometres from the Muidumbe district headquarters — firing their weapons.
“Once again, we are in a bad way. The terrorists came in and killed one person, wounded another and took a young man into the woods,” another source told Lusa, speaking from Nampanha.
As a result of the attack, the population took refuge in the forests of Muidumbe and only returned to the village of Nampanha today. At the same time, another part of the community went to Mueda, a district considered safe.
As well as Nampanha, the communities of Namande, Namacule and Muambula, close to the attacked village, are also leaving the region for fear of further incursions.
The attack on the town of Nampanha, in Muidumbe, took place on the same day that the population saw dozens of soldiers who had been sent to reinforce positions near the site of the attack.
A survey by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) organisation, reported on Friday by Lusa, estimates that the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado recorded 11 violent events between October 27 and November 9, essentially involving insurgents linked to the extremist Islamic State movement, causing ten civilian deaths.
According to the latest ACLED report, of the 2,251 violent events recorded since October 2017, when the armed insurgency began in Cabo Delgado, a total of 2,077 involved insurgents associated with Islamic State Mozambique (ISM).
These attacks have caused 6,316 deaths in just over eight years, according to the new balance sheet, including the ten victims reported in the two weeks between October and November.
On Thursday, Mozambique’s prime minister, Benvinda Levi, acknowledged the “persistence of terrorist actions” as one of the country’s main challenges, but pointed to “stabilisation” on the ground, which has allowed people to “gradually return” to their areas of origin.
“One of the main challenges facing our country at the moment is the persistence of terrorist actions in some districts of Cabo Delgado, where they have been resorting, among other “modus operandi”, to sporadic attacks and dispersal into small groups,” she recognised, speaking in parliament to brief MPs.
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