More than 100 terrorists killed

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.