At least three young people were tortured in a Cabo Delgado village for drinking and smoking.

At least three youths were tortured by a group of hooded terrorists who visited the Pangane community in Macomia, Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, to negotiate food, local sources told Lusa.

According to the same sources, the incident occurred on September 4 in this village at the administrative post of Mukoyo, 40 kilometers from the headquarters of the Macomia district, when an unidentified group of militants intended to purchase food from the local population.

Upon arrival, according to the same sources Lusa heard, they met a young man selling tobacco, another drinking alcohol, and a third intoxicated, prompting the rebels to torture them so that they would no longer use or sell these substances. .products, claiming that this is a practice contrary to the principles of Islam.

“They entered in the afternoon, around 15:45, when they arrived in Koh Phangan, they tortured three young men for selling and consuming cigarettes and alcoholic beverages,” confirmed a source from the Macomia district headquarters, who was selling cassava. fishermen of this village.

He added that after the torture, the rebels gathered the local community and asked them to distance themselves from alcoholic drinks, consumption and sale of cigarettes and devote themselves to Islam.

“We don’t want young people to smoke, drink or sell cigarettes. It’s a sin, devote yourself to Islam,” the same source recalled the rebels’ September 4 message.

This incursion came just days after the August 25 announcement by the Chief of the General Staff of the Mozambican Armed Forces, Joaquim Rivas Mangrass, that the country’s terrorist leader, Mozambican Bonomade Machoude Omar, had been eliminated along with other elements of the terrorist group’s leadership.

In Macomia, another source said that after the clash in Koh Phangan on the same day, the terrorists forced the population to sell them food.

Another source told Lusa that despite saying during the visit that they did not want war, the people of Macomia were feeling insecure, even after the death of the group’s main leader, Bonomad Machude Omar.

“We don’t feel safe. They, terrorists, are circulating in Phangan, Mukoyo, they can harm us, they say they don’t want war, but we are afraid,” said a source in Macomia.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi acknowledged on September 8 that terrorism, which has gripped Cabo Delgado province for almost six years, is a major obstacle to the country’s development, but welcomed the involvement of young people in the fight against it.

“In our country, terrorism has become one of the main obstacles to development. That is why we especially welcome young people in the ranks of the Defense and Security Forces,” the head of state said when speaking in the city of Chimoyo, central Manica province, at the IX National gala concert of the young creative award.

“They fight terrorism by inflicting heavy defeats on the enemy, allowing other young people to participate in productive sectors for development,” emphasized Filipe Nyusi.

On the ground, in Cabo Delgado, they are fighting terrorism – attacks that have been occurring since October 2017 and which have driven the advancement of natural gas projects in the region – the Mozambique Armed Defense Forces since July 2021, with the support of Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community ( SADC).

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the conflict in northern Mozambique has already displaced one million people and nearly 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED Conflict Record Project, while Mozambique’s president admitted this week to “more than 2,000” . deaths.