Attempts by terrorists to recruit young people repelled, claims Nyusi

Maputo, 22 Feb (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has claimed that the Defense and Security Forces have recently repelled several attempts by terrorists to compulsorily recruit young people to join their ranks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, in the Cabo Delgado provincial capital, Pemba, shortly after a meeting he held with the provincial government and State Representation Council, Nyusi said the terrorists are currently looking for young people to join their ranks.

“After the first fortnight of last month, there was a greater movement of terrorists in Cabo Delgado than in the past, although not on the same scale as in 2023 when attacks peaked”, he said. “The terrorists came down from Mucojo administrative post, and were already entering Metuge and Mecufi districts, and to some extent Chiúre district. There was an attempted attack but we know what they’re looking for. They can’t easily recruit in this province”.

He expressed satisfaction that the terrorists had failed in their attempt to recruit young people.

“This is partly due to the greater awareness of communities, which are also now on alert. As a result, terrorists are moving away to other districts as a way of surprising young people. That’s one of the reasons for the current terrorist attacks”, he said.

The upsurge in terrorist attacks in some regions of Cabo Delgado in recent days has caused many families to leave their homes for safer areas, including crossing the provincial boundary into Nampula province.

According to the administrator of the Nampula district of Eráti, Manuel Manussa, the preliminary estimate of displaced people, who have entered through the Namapa administrative post, which borders Chiúre, exceeds 30,000.

“We have already recorded over 10,000 people here, and there are still many more to be registered. The calculations suggest that we may have over 30,000 people here at the moment”, Manussa said.

However, in addition to recruitment, Nyusi believes that the attacks carried out by the terrorists have other motives that the defence forces are still investigating.

“The clash that the Defense and Security Forces had here in Okua (a Chiure administrative post) was predictable because the terrorists wanted to take children, young people, and they weren’t happy because the fire of our forces, with our brothers from Rwanda, didn’t allow that to happen”, Nyusi said.|

The Mozambican armed forces (FDM), with the support of Rwandan troops and the Southern African Development Community Military Mission (SAMIM), are launching new operations to eliminate terrorist groups.

Since October 2017, some districts of Cabo Delgado have suffered terrorist attacks that have left more than 3,000 people dead and more than 900,000 displaced.

(AIM)

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