November 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of Mozambique has affirmed that the jihadist groups “do not have permanent bases” in the province of Cabo Delgado (north), the epicenter since 2017 of a rebound in attacks by terrorist groups, including the Islamic State in Central Africa ( ISCA).
“We can say that there are no permanent terrorist bases,” said the Mozambican Defense Minister, Cristovao Chume, before indicating that the jihadists are divided into small groups that have lost their positions due to the operations of the security forces.
Chume’s words came after two people were killed on Monday in an attack carried out by suspected jihadists in Balama, in the south of Cabo Delgado, according to the Mozambican news portal Carta de Mozambique. The two victims were beheaded in the village of Marica.
According to this information, the men were kidnapped along with their wives when they were working in a farm field. The two women were later released and reported to the authorities that their husbands had been beheaded by the attackers.
The head of the Mozambique Police, Bernardino Rafael, asked the population of Cabo Delgado at the end of September to “resist” in the face of jihadist attacks with “knives” or “machetes”, given the rise in insecurity in this area of the country African.
The Mozambican authorities have highlighted in recent months an improvement in the security situation in the area due to joint operations with Rwandan special forces and troops deployed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Cabo Delgado has been the scene since October 2017 of attacks by Islamist militants known as Al Shabaab, unrelated to the group of the same name that operates in Somalia and maintains ties with Al Qaeda. Since mid-2019, they have mostly been claimed by ISCA, which has intensified its actions since March 2020.
