Dozens of civilians killed and at least 60 missing in Palma

At least 60 people, mostly foreigners, have been missing since Islamist militants attacked a column of civilian vehicles fleeing armed clashes in Palma. Government confirms dozens of dead.

According to the recordings of the Security Forces (SDS), which the British newspaper “The Guardian” had access to, and which describe what happened after the attack on Palma, only seven of the 17 vehicles in the column that fled the city, managed to reach a safe zone on Friday.

Everyone traveling in the other vehicles is presumably dead, says that British newspaper. It was not yet possible to understand whether these possible fatalities are included among the dozens of dead confirmed, this Sunday, by the Mozambican Ministry of Defense.

“A group of terrorists has surreptitiously penetrated the village in the district of Palma and launched actions that culminated in the cowardly murder of dozens of defenseless people and material damage to some of the Government’s infrastructures,” said Omar Saranga, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense of Mozambique.

Omar Saranga made the aftermath of the attacks on Palma, which began on Wednesday, in a press release he read to journalists in Maputo, without the right to ask questions.

“The SDS regretfully recorded the loss of seven lives by a group of citizens who rushed into a column of vehicles leaving the Hotel Amarula, which was ambushed by the terrorists,” he said.

The attack unleashed on Wednesday in Palma is the most serious among gas projects under development in the region, after three and a half years of armed insurgency in the area.

An incalculable number of people have since been fleeing to the Afungi peninsula. A more restricted group, of about 200 citizens of different nationalities, took refuge in the Amarula hotel, from where many were rescued by land and sea to the area controlled by Total oil.

One of the caravans was attacked on Friday night and at least seven people died. There were also injuries in the incident and one of them is a Portuguese man who is now transferred to South Africa for medical treatment, as confirmed by the Portuguese authorities.

This caravan, according to “The Guardian”, is said to have been attacked by insurgents, fearing that the total number of victims will be greater than that revealed by the government of Mozambique.

According to the minister, the SDS reinforced the “operational strategy” to contain the attacks of the attackers and restore normality in Palma, having in the last three days carried out actions focused on the rescue of hundreds of people, nationals and foreigners, and on the protection of citizens and your goods.

“At this moment, the SDS continue to clarify the areas of Palma in order to guarantee a safe return of the populations. The positions of the SDS are all under their control,” said Omar Saranga.

The Mozambican Ministry of National Defense said that Mozambican forces managed to remove hundreds of people, nationals and foreigners, and also prevented infrastructures and goods from being vandalized.

The SDS, he continued, continued to pursue the attackers, aiming to eliminate “some resistance pockets” and prevent the “terrorists” from returning to Palma.

The Defense Ministry spokesman did not say whether government forces had resumed effective control of Palma and whether the attackers remained in the village..

“The clear objective of this cowardly incursion on the part of the terrorists was to terrorize the populations of the main town in the district of Palma and to threaten the development of infrastructures that will provide an improvement in living conditions in the country and of the local populations in particular”, emphasized Omar Saranga.

Saranga pointed out that the activities of the SDS are being conducted with strict respect for human rights.

The violence that has raged since October 2017 in northern Mozambique is causing a humanitarian crisis with almost 700,000 displaced people and more than 2,000 deaths.

Some of the raids were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group between June 2019 and November 2020, but the source of the attacks remains under debate.

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