1. Brussels wants anti-terrorism intervention in Mozambique
According to a media report from Welt, which is also picked up by Der Standard, the Augsburg press and the Oldenburger online newspaper, the EU wants to start a military operation in response to the growing influence of Islamist terrorists in northern Mozambique. The EU foreign ministers would take a corresponding decision at their meeting on July 12 in Brussels, according to Welt, citing EU diplomats. Specifically, a “rapid reaction force”, elite units of Mozambican soldiers, should be trained on site. A combat deployment of the EU soldiers is not planned. The deployment will initially be limited to two years and Portugal should take over command.
2. More Beheadings Reported
Four people (two 15 years of age and others over the age of 30) were beheaded by terrorists in the district headquarters of Palma, northern Cabo Delgado province. According to the sources, the victims were part of a group of 15 people who had left the Quitunda Resettlement Village in search of food, when they were ambushed by an unspecified number of insurgents. The sources say that, to achieve their intent, the insurgents shot into the air, as a way of dispersing people, a strategy that had an effect, as people panicked and began to flee in a stampede. Four fell into enemy hands.
According to the sources, groups of people (mostly made up of farmers and fishermen), armed with blunt instruments (machetes, hunting weapons, arrows and javelins), have often left the Quitunda Resettlement Village in search of food.
Terrorist attacks in the Palma district’s main village remain a reality. Displaced people who disembark daily in the city of Pemba, report dark moments. The sources say that the insurgents have set up their headquarters near the former Camp Anadarko, which is located on the road connecting the town of Palma to the Quionga Administrative Post.
The district continues to suffer from hunger, with cassava being the main source of food. Communications are still cut off and the only way to get information from that district is to intercept the displaced, who daily flee from terror.
Mediafax (no 7347) reported seven beheadings in the village of Litamanda in the District of Macomia on 12 June. After the beheadings took place, the perpetrators dispersed the population and looted the village. Villagers are convinced that the perpetrators were members of the Mozambican Army – not insurgents.
Thursday, June 17, 2021, was one of terror and panic, in the Quitunda Resettlement Village, in Palma district, Cabo Delgado province. At around 5:00 am that day, shots were heard in that area, a fact that caused the population to flee into the woods. The sources narrated that the shootings were caused by the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) that were supposedly looking for members of the terrorist group that had infiltrated the community.
During its operations, the FDS not only panicked the population, but also searched the houses of the village and seized mobile phones and various goods, which supposedly could hold evidence of the presence or absence of the enemy in that place.
It should be noted that the district of Palma remains under siege, with a record of constant terrorist attacks. The village of Quitunda is located near the Mozambique LNG project, led by the French company Total, and is one of the main targets of the terrorists.
Eight bodies were discovered last Friday in Macomia district, Cabo Delgado province, in a hideout in the village of Novo Cabo Delgado, in the Administrative Post of Chai. The sources do not know when the people lost their lives, much less the reasons, they just confirm that the victims are residents of that village and guarantee that everything happened after the withdrawal of the Defense and Security Forces. According to the sources, the victims are local citizens, who live in low-lying areas, where after successive attacks the population decided to find areas for hiding places.
Recent Comments