A group of three men and an equal number of women from the community of Litamanda, Macomia District, in Cabo Delgado, found three lifeless bodies in a badly decomposed state on Friday morning, local sources told Lusa this Saturday.
“We went looking for firewood, drove about seven kilometers inland, when our dog started barking and kept sniffing in the direction where the bodies were,” one of the women in the group told Luce.
The three bodies were difficult to identify due to extensive decomposition, the source said, but they are believed to be from terrorists shot down by the military, who are constantly patrolling the area.
“We don’t identify anyone, the bodies are very rotten, but I think they were terrorists,” the source said.
Another source in the area told Lusa that a group of hunters found two lifeless bodies in the same area last week.
The Coordinating Force, a group of ex-combatants who support the government in the fight against the insurgency, say it is stepping up patrols in the Mananguene area where the bodies were found to restore security to the residents of Litamanda, Chai and Miangaleva.
Litamanda community belongs to the administrative post of Chay, Makomiya district, and is located on the border between the districts of Makomiya and Muidumbe, borders the city of Miangaleva, next to Muidumbe, across the Messalo River, along the national road No. 380, which connects to the districts further north.
The province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed insurgency for nearly six years, with extremist group Daesh claiming responsibility for some of the attacks.
The insurgency has led to military retaliation since July 2021, with the support of Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating areas near gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged in the south of the region and in the neighboring province of Nampula.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the conflict has already displaced one million people and killed about 4,000 people, according to the ACLED Conflict Registration Project.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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