Strangers set fire to a car and vandalized a house in the Macomia district headquarters in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, local sources told Lusa on Friday.
The act took place at around 11:00 pm (10:00 pm in Lisbon) this Thursday in the centre of the Macomia district headquarters, when security guards heard the sound of gunshots and saw a burning car on road number EN380.
“It happened. We only heard the sound of guns and a burning car, we panicked, but we didn’t know who it was,” a security guard at a local convenience store told Luse.
The source also said that the scenario caused panic among the surrounding population, but no casualties were reported: “No one died, but they caused damage to the house and the car itself, which they set on fire.”
The same sources do not know the identity of the perpetrators, but the population fears that this is another attempted invasion by rebel groups operating in the region.
“I think it’s them, the terrorists, because there is tension in Macomia. There is no peace here,” said another local source.
Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado has been the scene of an armed uprising, with attacks blamed on movements linked to the extremist group Islamic State.
The last major attack took place on 10 and 11 May on the Macomia district headquarters, when about a hundred rebels looted the town, resulting in several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces.
The population of other areas of the province reports the movement of these groups of rebels, causing panic along the way, in the forests, but without any records of clashes, which occurs at a time when the peasants are trying to carry out harvesting work in the fields of cultivation.
Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi said on June 16 that the actions of various defence forces had eliminated “virtually all” terrorist group bases operating in Cabo Delgado.
“The result of this unification of forces is amazing. They managed to disable the terrorists in all the occupied cities and villages, destroy almost all the enemy’s stationary bases, turning them into nomads, and eliminate many militant extremists from the battle, including some of their main leaders,” Nyusi said in Mueda, Cabo Delgado province.
The Head of State praised the efforts of the Mozambique Defence Forces, together with the Rwandan military, the South African mission that completed the full withdrawal of troops on 4 July, and the Local Forces, made up of former national liberation fighters, in combating these groups over the past six years.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.