Police claim to have cut terrorists supply chain

Mozambican police claim to have dismantled a base of the terrorists operating in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, and to have cut their chain of supply. Interviewed by the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the director of operations in the General Command of the police, Victor Novela, said that, during what he described as a successful operation against the islamist terrorists, the defence and security forces neutralised a group in the region of Cagembe, that was carrying 50 machetes to strengthen the enemy arsenal.

He added that, in operations in the regions of Ruarua, Rio and Ngure, the police seized firearms, uniforms and motor-bikes used to transport the terrorists. One of the motor-bikes had a Tanzanian number plate. Among the goods seized in this offensive was a military bed which, according to Novela, belongs to the army of a country in the Great Lakes region. Meanwhile, in the central city of Beira, ten Pakistanis, who tried to pass themselves off as fishermen, have been charged with conspiracy, presumably in connection with the terrorist operations in Cabo Delgado.

The spokesperson for the Sofala Provincial Attorney’s Office, Joaquim Tomo, was reluctant to give many details for fear of compromising the investigations. He told the independent television station STV that the preparatory investigations should not last for more than 40 days, followed by a public charge sheet and a trial.

 story of the Pakistanis began on the afternoon of 30 April, when a group of Mozambican fishermen spotted their boat, apparently adrift, about 40 kilometres from the port of Beira. At first they rejected help, and said they just wanted some fuel. But after the Mozambicans insisted, they were towed to Beira. In their first contacts with the press, they said they had been surprised by a storm off the coast of Pakistan in late February. This caused a breakdown and they had been drifting helplessly since then.

Their story changed the following day, when they told the Mozambican police they had been adrift for only 20 days – which is rather more credible than over two months. Five days later, the crew of another Mozambican fishing boat said they had seen the Pakistanis’ vessel (which is visually quite distinctive) not adrift at all, but near the boundary between Zambezia and Nampula provinces and sailing northwards, towards Cabo Delgado.

They said the boat was low in the water, and seemed to be heavily loaded. Other fishermen then said they had seen the same boat, between 19 and 21 April, moving at night from the high sea to land, and in the day back to sea.

These witnesses have led the police to suspect that the Pakistanis are not fishermen at all but are collaborating with the islamist terrorists in Cabo Delgado. The police investigations led to the detention of the Pakistanis, who are now in Beira Central Prison, awaiting trial.

Meanwhile, murderous attacks are continuing in Cabo Delgado. According to Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, the terrorists killed three people on Wednesday in the village of Chimbanga in Mocimboa da Praia district. They were surprised and butchered as they were working on their fields.