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- The Mozambican government has confirmed that dozens of people were killed in the town of Palma this week.
- The area has been besieged by extremists.
- More than 1,000 people were taken to safety on boats.
- A South African, Adrian Nel, is among the dead, his mother confirmed.
Dozens of people were killed in an attack in the northern Mozambique city of Palma this week, a spokesman for the country’s security and defense forces said, including seven people when a convoy of cars was ambushed in an escape attempt. .
Hundreds of other people, both local and foreign, have been rescued from the city, Omar Saranga told reporters on Sunday.
Seven died in an ambush during an operation to evacuate them from a hotel where they had taken refuge, AFP reported.
A British contractor was among the dead, killed when suspected Islamist insurgents attacked his hotel complex, The Times previously reported.
Hundreds of people fleeing the attack are arriving by boat in the port city of Pemba, said a diplomat and humanitarian worker.
READ | Attacks in Mozambique: SA man uses AK-47 found in abandoned government vehicle to drive insurgents away
The militants attacked Palma, a logistics hub for international gas projects worth $ 60 billion, on Wednesday. The government has yet to reestablish control, said the diplomat and a security source directly involved in operations to secure Palma.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the accounts, as most communications with Palma were cut off on Wednesday. Calls to officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the provincial government received no response or were not carried out on Sunday.
The government has said it is working to restore order in Palma.
The ships that arrived in Pemba on Sunday were carrying both locals and foreigners, including employees of gas projects, the aid official and the diplomat said. One ship was carrying around 1,300 people, the diplomat said.
‘I shouldn’t have died’
Adrian Nel, a South African, was killed in the violence in Mozambique, his mother Meryl Knox told the media.
Her husband and another son hid with her body in the bush until the next morning, when they were able to reach safety in Pemba, she said.
Knox told Sky News that his son was working as a contractor in the area. He had been there approximately on January 8.
His message to the Mozambican authorities was: “Please, they should have had a better army. They should have asked their neighbors or the international community for help. There have been horrible crimes against humanity.”
He claimed that the insurgents sent “flyers” warning that there would be an attack. He said insurgents had recently attacked a nearby village.
Knox said: “I feel like my son shouldn’t have died. There should have been more help. I think the Mozambican army didn’t try to protect them.”
She said she felt there should have been enough protection for the locals in the area.
She said that Nel, her other son and her husband were waiting at the Amarula hotel waiting to be evacuated. He said he had lived near the hotel.
“I just received news that there had been an attack. We were unable to reach anyone by phone.” She said her husband later contacted her via satellite phone last Wednesday to inform her of the situation. “We found out about a terrible conflict. I think there were 190 people in the hotel.”
He said he last heard from his family on Friday, after they received word that they were waiting to be evacuated. Her husband and son have Nel’s body, and Knox, visibly upset, said they are trying to get the body back to South Africa.
He said he learned of Adrian’s death on Saturday. Her other son and her husband “managed to escape” and were “too traumatized” to speak of the incident.
He described Nel as a “cheerful” person. “He brought love, kindness and joy to everyone he met. Family members adore him, he is the heart of the family and a ray of sunshine.”
Minimum
French energy group Total said on Saturday it was canceling a planned resumption of construction on its $ 20 billion development after the attack and that it would reduce its workforce to a “strict minimum.”
The company withdrew most of its workforce in January due to insecurity in Cabo Delgado province, which has been the target of an insurgency linked to the Islamic State since 2017.
Witnesses have described corpses in the streets of Palma, some of them beheaded. On Friday, militants ambushed a convoy of people, including foreign workers, trying to escape from a hotel.
Helicopters contracted by the government were looking for more survivors. Lionel Dyck, who runs a private security company that works with the government, said his helicopters had rescued at least 17 people on Sunday.
The number of people injured and killed in the four-day assault on Palma, or is not yet known, remains unclear. Previously, the city had been a haven for people fleeing violence in other parts of the province.
– Additional information from Kerushun Pillay
