Police deny attack in Nampula province

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Police deny attack in Nampula province
Police deny attack in Nampula province

Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican police on Monday denied that an armed attack in Memba district, in the northern province of Nampula, had anything to do with the islamist terrorism that has plagued parts of the neighbouring province of Cabo Delgado since 2017.

Last Friday a group of armed men, wearing hoods, attacked a village in the Lurio administrative post in Memba. It was claimed that the men had come from Cabo Delgado, crossing the Lurio river to enter Nampula. If true, this would mark the first time that terrorism had spilled over southwards from Cabo Delgado into Nampula.

In this raid, the attackers shot two people dead, and injured a third, breaking his arm. They burnt down several houses, and then crossed the river back into Cabo Delgado.

Cited in Tuesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Moçambique”, the Nampula provincial police spokesperson, Zacarias Nacute, denied that this incident had been a terrorist attack. But he did not suggest alternative culprits and pledged that the police would investigate.

Meanwhile, in the Cabo Delgado district of Nangade, a terrorist group killed six men on Thursday in an attack against Malamba village, some six kilometres from the district capital, Nangade town. Four of the men were beheaded when the jihadists surprised them working on their cashew trees.

By the time members of the defence and security forces, and their allies from the SADC mission (SAMIM), arrived, the terrorists had left the area.

On Friday, a group of terrorists halted traffic on the road between Nangade and the neighbouring district of Mueda for about three hours, and kidnapped a number of peasants, mostly women, who had been working in their nearby fields. This attack took place shortly after President Filipe Nyusi had left Nangade town, where he had visited the SAMIM contingent stationed in that part of Cabo Delgado.

The situation in Ancuabe district, however, has improved enough for the Australian mining company, Syrah Resources, to end its ban on the movement of its staff along the main road from Balama to the provincial capital, Pemba. The ban was imposed after a terrorist attack near a graphite mine in Ancuabe left two people dead.

Syrah managers told the company’s shareholders that the ban had been lifted after a new assessment of the security situation. The company said it remains in close contact with the Mozambican authorities to guarantee the security of its staff and its contractors.

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