MAPUTO, June 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi has said government forces engaged in extensive fighting against militants who overran a town in the north of the country on Thursday.
It’s the first time the government has acknowledged the attack on Macomia – the third town to be seized by militants in recent months.
Nyusi said some militant commanders had been killed in the fighting, but this has not been independently verified.
In an interview on state television channel TVM, Nyusi said top officials were still trying to confirm their deaths which appear to have occurred after Thursday’s attack and occupation of the Macomia district headquarters.
“We have information that senior officers of this force have been slaughtered, which we can consider to be the leadership, but the Defence and Security Forces will confirm this at a proper moment,” Nyusi said.
“We are learning how to deal with that force and we are encouraging the Defence and Security Forces to fight them.”
Since 2017, a shadowy group has wreaked havoc among communities in the gas-rich north, burning huts, decapitating villagers and killing more than 1,100 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).
The militants have grown bolder over the past two months, stepping up attacks by destroying more important infrastructure such as government headquarters buildings, bank branches and looting money.
They have now ventured into towns as part of a declared campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate.
Outnumbering the government troops, the militants launched a fresh attack last Thursday, striking Macomia district in an early morning assault.
Air force support from private military companies arrived in Macomia from Pemba to repel the attackers but without troops on the ground it was difficult to control the situation, unnamed police sources said.
Clashes have been raging in the area since.
The headquarters of the districts of Mocimboa da Praia, Quissanga, Muidumbe were attacked and assaulted before Macomia.
Despite President Filipe Nyusi’s promises, neither the police nor the army, recently shored up by foreign private security companies, has succeeded in preventing attacks.
In all the towns in which they attack, militants hoist a black flag, with white inscriptions in Arabic, the same used by the Daesh group.
But after a while they retreat to the woods, leaving behind a trail of destruction.
About 600 people are reported to have been killed since the insurgency began three years ago. — NNN-AGENCIES
