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Mozambican army soldiers patrol the streets after security was increased in the area following a two-day attack by suspected Islamists.
PHOTO: Adrien Barbier / AFP
- The ISS believes that more than 100 people remain missing amid the conflict in northern Mozambique.
- At least one South African is believed to have died when jihadists stormed the area.
- More than 1,000 people were evacuated by boats.
Dozens of people were still missing Sunday following a deadly Islamist attack in the northern Mozambique city of Palma, as thousands of survivors were evacuated to the provincial capital, Pemba, sources said.
Militants began attacking the city, a gas hub in Cabo Delgado province, on Wednesday, forcing nearly 200 workers, including foreign employees, to evacuate a hotel where they had taken refuge.
They were temporarily taken to the heavily guarded gas plant located on the Afungi Peninsula on the Indian Ocean coast south of the Tanzanian border before being transferred to Pemba.
READ | Attacks in Mozambique: SA man uses AK-47 found in abandoned government vehicle to drive insurgents away
Some residents of the city of about 75,000 people fled to the peninsula, home to a billion-dollar gas project being built by France’s Total and other energy companies.
A ship that left Afungi on Saturday landed in Pemba around noon, according to police patrolling the city’s port.
According to a source close to the rescue operation, there were “around 1,400” people on board.
The evacuees included non-essential personnel from Total and Palma residents who had taken refuge at the gas plant.
Several other small boats full of displaced people were heading to Pemba and were expected to arrive overnight or Monday morning, according to humanitarian aid agencies.
Pemba airport officials said humanitarian aid flights had been suspended to free up space for military operations.
Caritas, a Catholic aid agency operating in the province, also reported new arrivals in Pemba, located about 250 km south of Palma.
Shooting
“Now we await the arrival of the most vulnerable people to be able to provide assistance,” local Caritas head Manuel Nota told AFP.
Human Rights Watch claims that the militants indiscriminately fired at civilians in their homes and in the streets.
“A rescue operation is currently underway. An unknown number of people died while trying to flee the Amarula hotel,” Human Rights Watch regional director Dewa Mavhinga told AFP, adding that his rescue convoy “was attacked by insurgents. “
The Mozambican government has not yet reported on the situation.
The militant attack on Palma is the closest so far to the major gas project during a three-year Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique.
Since October 2017, extremist fighters have stormed towns and cities in the region, forcing almost 700,000 to flee their homes.
The violence has killed at least 2,600 people, half of them civilians, according to the US data collection agency Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED).
A South African worker was killed in the Palma violence, according to a source in the government of his native country.
Violence
Martin Ewi, principal investigator for the Pretoria-based think tank, the Institute for Security Studies, said “more than 100” people were still missing.
“That’s what we know so far, but it’s so confusing.”
While local media reports said British workers may also have been caught in the attack, the UK’s Commonwealth and Development Office said its embassy in Maputo was in “direct contact with the authorities in Cape Delgado to urgently seek more information on these reports. “
“The UK wholeheartedly condemns the appalling violence at Cabo Delgado. It must stop,” Africa Minister James Duddridge tweeted.
The United States, whose troops are helping to train Mozambican troops to fight the insurgency, said Sunday that it “continues to monitor the dire situation in Palma,” adding that a US citizen who was in Palma had been safely evacuated.
The embassy announced earlier this month that US military personnel will spend two months training soldiers in Mozambique.
