Africa-Press – Mozambique. The commander of the Mozambican army has said that at least 33 bodies of terrorists had been counted as a result of clashes to recapture the town of Mocímboa da Praia, in northern Mozambique.
“On the enemy side there were casualties and of those that have been counted so far, there are about 33 identified bodies of the enemy,” Cristóvão Chume told Mozambican television station Televisão de Moçambique in said in Mocímboa da Praia,, noting that the number of insurgents killed could be higher.
According to Maj-Gen Cristovão Chume, there were no casualties in the joint Mozambican and Rwandan troops,
The Ministry of Defence announced on Sunday the recapture of the main town of Mocímboa da Praia, considered by many to be the “base” of the insurgent groups that have carried out armed attacks in Cabo Delgado since 2017.
“When we were taking these positions that served as ‘buffer zones’ to reach Mocímboa da Praia, the enemy realised that they had no alternative but to leave. They offered little resistance because if they wanted to continue fighting there would have been a total elimination,” Cristóvão Chume stressed.
The operation was conducted by a joint force comprising troops from Mozambique and Rwanda, which since the beginning of July has had about 1,000 troops and police in Cabo Delgado to support Mozambique in the fight.
On Thursday, from Kigali, the spokesman for the Rwandan army, Ronald Rwivanga, made a positive assessment of the presence of Rwandan troops in Cabo Delgado, estimating that they have caused at least 70 casualties among the insurgents.
Mocímboa da Praia is located 70 kilometres south of the construction area of the natural gas exploration project led by Total.
The town had been invaded and occupied by rebels on 23 March last year, in an action later claimed by the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State, and was, on 27 and 28 June of that year, the scene of clashes between government forces and insurgent groups, which led to the flight of a considerable part of the population.
As well as Rwanda, Mozambique now has support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in a mandate for a “joint force on standby” approved on 23 June at an extraordinary summit of the organisation in Maputo.
The total number of troops that the organisation will send to Mozambique is not publicly known, but SADC experts, who were in Cabo Delgado, said in April that the mission would be made up of around 3,000 soldiers.
Following the attacks, there are more than 3,100 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and more than 817,000 displaced people, according to Mozambican authorities.
