The extremist group Islamic State (IS) has claimed an attack on the village of Novo Cabo, Macomia district, Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, killing “three Christians” and setting fire to at least 14 houses.
Through propaganda channels, the group assumed that the attack on the ‘Christian village’ took place on Friday, using machine guns by ‘soldiers of the caliphate’.
The attack took place during a preparation ceremony for a female initiation ritual planned for Sunday, during which the terrorists entered the camp and fired volleys of shots.
Local sources indicated that the attack caused the death of a fourth person.
In September, Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi acknowledged that terrorism, which has ravaged Cabo Delgado province for six years, was a “serious and new threat to peace” but insisted it was not a religious conflict.
“A serious and new threat to peace in Mozambique is terrorism, a phenomenon that has affected our country, and more specifically the province of Cabo Delgado, since October 2017. The brutality with which terrorists operate has made it clear that this is not a religious issue. conflict, but a phenomenon caused by factors such as money laundering, drug trafficking, the waste of mineral resources and other forms of crime.”said the chairman.
The Mocímboa da Praia district was the first target of terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, on October 5, 2017. The capital Mocímboa da Praia even served as the rebel headquarters for a little over a year until it was recovered. , in August 2021, through joint action by Mozambican and Rwandan government forces.
In August, Mozambique’s armed forces announced that they had shot several of the group’s leaders, including its leader, Mozambican Bonomade Omar.
“The terrorists are no longer in the villages, we have dismantled their main bases and they have become defensive and in small groups, carrying out sporadic small attacks to plunder the population’s food and perpetuate the terror. With the improvement of law and order, populations have returned en masse to their areas of origin and resumed their lives in a normal manner.”said Filipe Nyusi.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the conflict in northern Mozambique has displaced more than a million people since 2017 and left around 4,000 dead, according to the ACLED conflict recording project.
Mozambique’s armed forces have been fighting terrorism in Cabo Delgado province since July 2021, with support from Rwanda and the SADC mission.
Source: DN
