Maputo, 31 July (AIM) ‒ A group of islamist terrorists murdered on Monday five people in Melija village, in Chiúre district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.
According to local sources, cited by the independent newsheet “Carta de Moçambique”, the terrorists arrived suddenly and fired into the air to disperse the residents. They then seized five people, who were executed on the spot.
“We received information that five people have lost their lives, killed by these terrorists. Therefore, people have abandoned the area. The local forces (the peasant militia) managed to respond to the attack because the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS) are not present in that region”, a source said.
The same source also confirmed the occurrence of clashes between the terrorists and the local forces for the third consecutive day in some villages in the Ocua and Catupa administrative posts. “There are reports of casualties on both sides”, he said.
The local residents also confirmed that the two individuals killed by locals in the village of Nivenevene last Tuesday, suspected of having links to the terrorist group, were in fact officers of the Mozambican police (PRM) on a reconnaissance mission in that area of Chiúre district.
According to sources, cited by “Carta de Moçambique”, the two men appeared suddenly in the village and “people didn’t even bother to identify whether they were soldiers or terrorists. They wasted no time in beating the two men, like taking justice into their own hands.”
“They were captured, they were not interrogated. They were beaten to death and then their bodies were burned in public”, the source said.
This grisly crime was later claimed by members of the peasant militia, known as the Naparamas, according to a report in Wednesday’s issue of the electronic publication, the “Mozambique Times”.
According to local sources, the two police officers arrived in the village at around 05.00 on a motorbike and were stopped by the Naparamas. Despite identifying themselves as PRM officers on official duty, they were forcibly taken, locked inside a building, and subjected to torture until death. Their bodies were later burned.
The Naparamas accused the officers of being terrorists who had infiltrated the area to spy ahead of a possible attack.
The security situation in Chiúre has continued to deteriorate since the attack a week ago when insurgents temporarily occupied the Chiúre Velho administrative post and raised the Islamic State flag at the local police station.
(AIM)
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