Africa-Press – Mozambique. The three farmers kidnapped around a week ago in the Mozambican district of Metuge have been freed, the victims themselves told Lusa on Saturday.
“They released us on Saturday. They told us that this is an important month and that Allah does not allow a man to exploit or mistreat a similar man in the month of Ramadan,” said one of the victims from the Metuge district headquarters 60 kilometres from Nampipi, where the kidnapping took place.
The three peasant farmers were kidnapped around a week ago from their agricultural production fields in the Nampipi area by an armed group, who took them to the Mahate forest in Quissanga district, 63 kilometres from Metuge.
Since being kidnapped on Monday, the victims say they spent almost a week eating only tubers and working for the insurgents.
“We were a kind of helpers for them. There [in captivity] it’s just suffering. (…) We saw children in the group who were weak,” another victim told Lusa, revealing that around 20 other people who were also in captivity were released at the same time.
The group of farmers, aged between 55 and 60 years old, had decided to go to their distant ‘machambas’ in the interior of the district against the wishes of some family members who feared situations similar to the attack on the neighbouring village of Pulo, where six people died on March 6.
READ: Mozambique: Three kidnapped by terrorists in Nampipi, Metuge district – Lusa
“When they released us, they told us that they were going to return, and not to go back to our machambas. We will go hungry this year,” one of the victims complained.
The attacks on farmers in Metuge come at a time when pests are already attacking crops in the interior of the district, especially in the Nampipi area, possibly compromising the local population’s already deficient diet.
After several months of relative normality in districts affected by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, the province has again been registering new movements and attacks by rebel groups, who have limited circulation on some of the few paved roads that give access to the districts.
The province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed insurgency for six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist Islamic State group.
The insurgency, which has intensified since December with several attacks on the population and armed forces, has led to a military response, since July, 2021, with the support of more than 2,000 military personnel from Rwanda, and from the SADC, liberating districts near natural gas projects.
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