Up to 60 people, mostly foreign nationals, are missing after a deadly ambush in their convoy by Islamist militants in northern Mozambique.
According to recordings of security calls reviewed by The Guardian describing the aftermath of the attack, only seven vehicles in a convoy of 17 made it to safety after Friday’s attack, with seven confirmed dead and many injured in the recovered vehicles. Everyone in the other vehicles is presumed dead.
The heartbreaking details of the attack came after reports that South Africa was considering sending military forces as part of a mission to rescue the remaining civilians in the city.
Islamist rebels attacked Palma, where many foreign contractors have been working for a multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas project run by French energy company Total, on Wednesday, leading to five days of fighting so far.
A few hundred foreign workers from South Africa, Great Britain and France sought refuge in hotels that quickly became targets of rebel attacks; Some 200 foreign workers were believed to be alone at the Amarula Hotel. After a failed attempt to escape by sea, a convoy of vehicles attempted to flee the besieged hotel and reach the coast before being ambushed twice.
One of those killed in the convoy was identified in the South African media as Adrian Nel, who was reportedly killed when he, his father and his younger brother joined the convoy that tried to escape from the Amarula Lodge hotel.
Nel’s body and family members were finally rescued by helicopter Saturday morning and taken to the nearby, and heavily defended, Afungi liquefied natural gas facility being built by Total.
Nel had only been in the coastal city since January, where he was hired to build housing for the gas workers.
His mother, Meryl Knox, told Agence-France Presse: “When they left [the hotel], were ambushed. They shot my son.
“There is no way to describe how you feel when you receive news like that. It’s just devastating, it numbs the body, it numbs the mind. “
The recordings describe scenes of chaos in which helicopters and boats led by various security companies tried to remove those trapped in the city. A convoy was hit in an ambush almost as soon as it left the Amarula hotel.
In one recording, a contractor describes the aftermath of the ambush. “That thing Pierre was describing.” There were 17 vehicles. We know a lot of the guys involved in that convoy. Seventeen vehicles left Amarula.
“Only seven of the vehicles made it. In those seven vehicles that managed to pass there were seven confirmed deaths. Very few of them had been shot and injured, but they are still alive.