Terrorists attack

 islamist terror groups operating in the northern province of Cabo Delgado on Friday murdered five people in the Quirimbas archipelago, according to a report in Monday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”. The islamists, passing themselves off as ordinary civilians, took small boats from the mainland to the archipelago, a distance of about seven kilometres, on Thursday evening. They took up positions on Quirimba island on Thursday night, and launched their murderous attack on Friday morning. Of the five people killed, three drowned as they tried to escape. One of the victims was burnt alive, while the fifth was shot dead. About 60 people were taken hostage, but released later in the day. As has become normal in islamist raids, the insurgents attacked the local primary school, a health centre, the official residence of the head of the Quirimba administrative post, and destroyed an unspecified number of homes of the local population.Many islanders fled from  Quirimba to the mainland. Fear and panic spread to the main island in the archipelago, Ibo, where people feared that Ibo too would be subject to attack. Further details have become available about last week’s attacks on Muidumbe district. At Muambula village, the terrorists killed five people, and vandalised the local secondary school, and the Nangololo Mission, which contains one of the oldest churches in Cabo Delgado.