Mozambican Interior Minister Amade Miquidade
claimed on Tuesday that a military offensive this month by the defence and
security forces has led to the death of at least 129 terrorists in the northern
province of Cabo Delgado.Speaking to reporters at the end of a meeting of the
Council of Ministers, Miquidade said that currently Cabo Delgado is “under
control”. He claimed that the defence and security forces have identified the
hideouts of the islamist groups who have been terrorising parts of the province
since October 2017, and have followed their movements.
The government’s forces, he added, are now
preparing for another offensive.
Giving an account of the recent fighting,
Miquidade said that on 7 April, “39 terrorists were killed in an attempted
attack against Muidumbe district. In the early morning of 10 April, another 59
were killed as a result of an attack they made against Quirimba island”.From
reports in the media at the time, it can be confirmed that the islamists did
indeed attack Muidumbe on 7 April. According to these reports, they briefly
overran the district capital, Namacunde, and attacked public buildings
including the district police command, and the local bank.The international
terrorist organisation known as Islamic State, or ISIS or Daesh, claimed
responsibility for the Muidumbe attacks on its website, which carried a photo
of the ruins of the Namacunde bank.
The 10 April attack on Quirimba can also be
confirmed from the media. This was the first time the terrorists had attacked
one of the offshore islands, using small boats to cross from the mainland. They
destroyed a primary school, a health centre, the local administrator’s
residence, and an unspecified number of homes of the local population.Miquidade
said that the raiders, disguised as fishermen, used four boats to attack Ibo
island on the night of 11 April. In this clash the defence and security forces
killed 30 terrorists.
On 13 April, he continued, a patrol
intercepted a sailing boat carrying military and communications equipment. When
the crew tried to flee, the defence forces shot dead another insurgent.Miquidade
believed that the heavy losses suffered by the insurgents was the basic reason
for their massacre of 52 young people in Xitachi village, in Muidumbe district,
on 8 April. He announced that a team of military specialists is being sent to
Muidumbe to investigate the circumstances of the massacre. The report from this team, he added, should be
published “as soon as possible”. He wanted the investigation to be “very
complete and very profound”.Miquidade also condemned the main opposition party
the former rebel movement Renamo, and some of the media for publishing
“disinformation” about the conflict in Cabo Delgado which “calls into question
the credibility of the combative missions of the defence and security forces”.He
mentioned in particular the Renamo national spokesperson, Jose Manteigas, who
last Thursday accused the armed forces and the police of murdering defenceless
civilians in Cabo Delgado.Miquidade claimed this was an attempt to make
political capital out of the situation in Cabo Delgado, and to manipulate
public opinion.
“This way of doing politics and this type of
posture favourable to the actions of the extremists who are sowing terror and
mourning in the north of Cabo Delgado province”, he said, “reveals a lack of
commitment to the cause of the motherland, an excessively partisan attitude,
and a flagrant lack of patriotism”.But the protests do not come solely from
Renamo. A group of 17 Mozambican and international civil society organisations
has written to President Filipe Nyusi protesting against violence by the
defence and security forces in Cabo Delgado. These organisations include the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA), the Federation of Portuguese Language Journalists (FJLP), Reporters
without Borders (RSF), and the International Press Institute (IPI).According to
a summary of the letter, published by the Mozambican NGO, the Centre for
Democracy and Development (CDD), the signatories, although recognising the
right and duty of the authorities to use force to protect the population and
defend national sovereignty, argue that an effective strategy to fight
terrorism should respect human rights, including the freedom of expression and
freedom of the press.They warned that Mozambique’s response to the Cabo Delgado
insurgency “has been stained by allegations of abuses of human rights”, which
could contribute more to radicalisation than to fighting terrorism.They urged
the Mozambican authorities to refrain from harassing journalists and
collaborators with NGOs, and to open a complete and impartial investigation
into the allegations of human rights violations.The signatories called for an
investigation into the disappearance of Ibraimo Mbaruco, a journalist on the
Palma district community radio, who has not been seen since 7 April.The police
have denied that the defence forces were involved in the kidnapping, and
Miquidade said that an investigation into the matter is already under way.
