PALMA, KOMPAS.com – The main city on Mozambique north, Palma, empty on Monday (29/3/2021).
All citizens fled by land, boat, or on foot at the time ISIS attacked the city with a barrage of attacks.
ISIS-linked militias have attacked Palma since Wednesday (24/3/2021), and have escalated the conflict in northern Mozambique since 2017.
Also read: Militia Attack Cities in Mozambique, Beach Filled with Headless Corpses
Dozens of people, according to ISIS and authorities, died in what witnesses described as coordinated attacks.
AFP proclaimed that a number of people were still missing and their whereabouts were unknown.
This was the attack on the closest location to a multibillion-dollar gas project under construction on the peninsula just 10 km from the scene.
The gas project was built by France’s Total and other energy giants.
ISIS claims these attacks targeted military and government targets, and killed dozens of soldiers as well as “members of the Crusader state”, their term for Western citizens.
Also read: ISIS Admits To Being The Mastermind Of The Attack On Mozambique’s City Filled With Headless Corpses
Palma is a city of 75,000 people in the province of Cabo Delgado, but now it’s all empty because of its residents, said civil society activist Adriano Nuvunga.
“The violence has stopped, but it is believed some militants have withdrawn and some are still hiding,” he told AFP.
Eyewitnesses said militias sneaked into the city ahead of the attack.
“The attackers arrived a few days earlier and hid in the homes of local residents whom they bribed,” said a resident of Palma, speaking from Mueda where he is taking shelter.
“The attack started along the main road to Palma,” he continued.
When the police came to evict the attackers, the militia inside the city launched their own attacks, according to eyewitnesses.
Also read: US Sanctions ISIS Group in Mozambique and Congo
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