Maputo, 15 Mar (AIM) – Three farmers from the Nampipi region, Metuge district, in the northern Mozambican Province of Cabo Delgado, were abducted last Monday by Islamist terrorists, according to Friday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Carta de Moçambique.”
According to local sources, cited by the paper, they were surprised inside their huts by armed men and were taken by force to an unknown destination.
“They were in separate huts, but close together for precautionary reasons, when suddenly a group of armed men arrived and told them to go with them. It was the terrorists, yes. I was hiding not far away when I realized that armed men were taking my companions. I couldn’t leave out of fear, but I felt bad about not helping”, one villager said.
The group of peasants, aged between 55 and 60, had decided to go to the countryside, walking a long distance through the district, even against the wishes of some family members who feared situations similar to the attack on the neighboring village of Pulo, where six people died on 6 March.
“I told my cousin not to go. He told me that he lives off farming, that he has no choice but to produce and that the pests are wiping out the food”, another source said.
According to the paper, the residents are abandoning the villages of Walopwana and Muisse, also in Metuge district, due to the movement of the jihadist groups.
Some sources said that on 9 March, terrorists captured a person in the woods of Nampipi, and asked him for the location of Walopwana, which was supposed to be the next community to be attacked.
The attack on Metuge comes at a time when pests are attacking crops, especially in the Nampipi area, which could jeopardize the local population’s food supply.
“A lot of products will be lost in the fields, because the terrorists are circulating in the very areas where there is a lot of food,” the source lamented.
After several months of relative normality in the districts affected by armed violence in Cabo Delgado, the province has been experiencing new movements and attacks by jihadist groups for the past few weeks which have limited circulation and caused many villagers to flee their homes for safer areas.
(AIM)
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