from ARMANDO DOMINGOS in Maputo, Mozambique
Mozambique Bureau
MAPUTO, (CAJ News) – THE terror by non-state armed groups in northern Mozambique is rising despite the deployment of regional military forces.
Latest statics by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) indicate serious violations such as murder, rape and kidnappings.
These escalated in August in the volatile Cado Delgado province.
A total of 63 incidents were reported in ten out of the province’s seventeen districts, against the 34 security incidents reported the previous month.
Attacks against civilians (35 attacks) continued unabated with women and children the most exposed to violence.
In Nangade district, at least four women were kidnapped by insurgent while foraging for food. Three more were raped while in tending to their fields.
On August 26, the Islamists claimed responsibility for an attack in the district of Muidumbe where three civilians were killed and some 70 houses burned.
Insecurity along the roads connecting affected districts continued to impact humanitarian partners’ ability to move staff and aid.
It is estimated that more than 302 000 people are currently displaced across the hard-to-reach areas of Cabo Delgado.
Ansar al-Sunna, as the insurgent group is known, has been carrying out terror attacks in the resources-rich province since 2017.
More than 4 000 people are estimated to have been killed.
Some 800 000 others have been displaced.
Troops from Rwanda and Southern African Development Community (SADC) were deployed in 202 to assist Mozambique curb the terrorism.
– CAJ News