Africa-Press – Mozambique. A group of heavily armed islamist terrorists on Thursday attacked and occupied the small fishing town of Quissanga in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, according to a report in Friday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Carta de Moçambique”.
The paper’s sources said there was no resistance. There was no sign of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), and the few members of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR – the Mozambican riot police) stationed in the town fled.
One resident, cited by the paper, said the UIR members were seen blending in with the population and heading for the beach.
The assailants did not kill or mistreat the town’s residents. Instead they urged those who are moslems to stay, and to attend a prayer meeting in a local mosque.
These jihadists have also stopped ambushing and burning vehicles on the roads. Instead, they are charging motorists a fee to use the roads.
A contractor from the provincial capital, Pemba, who is rehabilitating a public establishment in Quissanga, said the terrorists obliged him to pay 150,000 meticais (about 2,340 dollars, at the current exchange rate). If he did not pay, the jihadists threatened, they would destroy his vehicle and kill the four workers accompanying him.
He did as he was asked, and his men were told to return to Quissanga where they hid the car, and fled to the beach in the hope of finding a boat that would take them to Pemba.
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