Paramilitaries arrest a young man in Cabo Delgado

A local paramilitary group called the Namfaramas stopped the kidnapping of a young man by suspected terrorist groups in Ancuaba, in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, community sources told Lusa.

The episode occurred around 11:00 (9:00 Lisbon time) on Thursday in the village of Nicunhete in the interior of Sunate (Silva Macua), Ancuabe district, while the victim was working in an agricultural field.

“The terrorists wanted to kidnap the young man from his farm, but the namfarams saved him. A local resident saw the group approaching the young man and quickly alerted the community. The Namfarams arrived on the scene and the rebel groups fled, leaving the victim behind. “, a source from Sunate (Silva Macua) told Lusa.

In Ankuabe district, 105 kilometers from the provincial capital (Pemba), the communities of Missoufine and Intutupue warned of a “strange movement” of unknown groups.

“Yes, there is a movement, especially because now we go to the farm in groups,” said another source from this community, recalling that since 2021, when the rebels attacked the Naduli community, the residents of Ankuabe are “fearful” about the new movements of these groups in Cabo Delgado.

The Namfarams are a Mozambican paramilitary force that emerged in the 1980s during the civil war, combining traditional knowledge and mystical elements to fight enemies while acting as a community.

After months of relative normalcy in areas of Cabo Delgado affected by armed violence, the province has been registering new movements and attacks for weeks by rebel groups that have restricted traffic at some points on the few paved roads that give access to several areas.

Official data shows that a new wave of attacks from the movements has forced 67,321 people to flee their homelands. Mozambican authorities justify the incursions as a “movement of small groups of terrorists” who fled their barracks in the south of the country. Cabo Delgado after a period of relative stability.

Cabo Delgado province has faced an armed insurgency for six years, with the extremist group Islamic State claiming responsibility for some attacks.

The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021, backed by 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.

The conflict has already displaced one million people, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) has killed nearly 4,000 people.