Islamist terrorists massacred between 50 and 70 people in Muidumbe district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, on Wednesday, according to a report in the latest issue of the independent weekly “Savana”.
The islamists struck into Muidumbe on Tuesday, where they overran the district capital, Namacunde, and occupied the district police command.
Resistance from the islamist incursion came from a group of veterans of the country’s independence war (waged between 1964 and 1974) who on Tuesday ambushed a group of the insurgents. They cut off all possible escape routes, and killed more than 30 of the islamists.
The massacre the following day may have been retaliation. The insurgents called the residents of Xitaxi village to a meeting. But there was no meeting, and when the villagers turned up, at about 13.00, several of them were seized and beheaded. Many others were gunned down as they fled.
Reconstructing the attack on Muidumbe, “Savana” says the islamists struck into the district on Tuesday morning, between 05.00 and 06.00. By midday on Wednesday, they had raided Namacunde and seven other villages.
In Namacunde, they vandalised the Muidumbe district administrative office, a local bank and a filling station. In Muatide, the largest village in the district, the insurgents destroyed the local health centre, and also attack a secondary school.
At the villages of Miyangalewa, 24th June and Mwambula the raiders burnt down an unspecified number of houses. Five people were reportedly killed in Miyangalewa.
The international terrorist organisation known as Islamic State, or ISIS or Daesh, has claimed responsibility for the Muidumbe attacks on its website, which carried a photo of the ruins of the Namacunde bank.
So far, the police and the military have said nothing about the events in Muidumbe. Indeed, when contacted by “Savana”, the spokesperson for the general command of the police, Orlando Mudumane, said “We don’t confirm this”.
So is Muidumbe district calm?, the paper asked. “Yes it is”, replied Mudumane, flying in the face of eye-witness and photographic evidence.
