Mozambique’s Military says a significant number of militants have been killed in the counter-offensive in an ongoing battle in the coastal town of Palma after the city was taken over by an ISIL-affiliated group. While civilians are beginning to return to the city, more than 11,000 people were displaced during the past two weeks. The attack took place on March 24 in the town of Palma which has a population of 75,000. The Islamic State (IS) had claimed responsibility for the attack which has left dozens of civilians dead. Communications with the town remain cut and the total number of deaths and missing people are still unclear.
Mozambique: Islamist terror on the Indian Ocean
Meanwhile, in the southern Tanzanian border town of Mtwara, residents are fearful their Tanzanian relatives in Mozambique are in danger and want their government to repatriate them.
Rukia Ngomeke, a Mtwara resident, has relatives in Mozambique. She says she has lost contact with them since violence broke out. At the police station, we are told to wait until the refugees are interrogated, and the security officials are convinced they are okay. Then they send their names to immigration for further investigation to find out if they went to Mozambique legally or they went there to hide.
US Special Forces sent into Mozambique amid growing civil war
Amid an escalating armed conflict in Mozambique, the Pentagon has sent US Special Operations troops into the southern African nation. The deployment of these troops, described as “trainers” and “advisers,” and justified in the name of the endless “war on terrorism,” provides fresh confirmation of the Biden administration’s global escalation of US militarism, including on the continent of Africa.
Announced in the middle of last month, the US deployment has come amid a sharp escalation in the civil war being fought in Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado, where the Mozambican government is confronting an insurgency among that region’s predominantly Muslim population.
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