BFF-62 Suspected jihadists kill 5 in north Mozambique: police

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Suspected jihadists kill 5 in north Mozambique: police

MAPUTO, June 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Suspected jihadists wielding knives and
machetes killed five people in a Mozambique region that has been rocked by
attacks blamed on radical Islamists, police said Thursday.

Cabo Delgado, a northern province expected to become the centre of a
natural gas industry after several promising discoveries, has seen a string
of assaults on security forces and civilians since October.

“There was one more attack (by) the same group that has been attacking
the neighbouring villages, (it) attacked a village on Wednesday around 9:00
p.m. and killed five and destroyed houses and left running,” a police source
told AFP.

The attackers targeted Namaluco village in the Quissanga district of Cabo
Delgado.

Police reinforcements had been deployed to the area to step up security
but attacks have continued unabated.

Police believe the same group also hacked seven people to death in
another village in the region on Tuesday after beheading 10 people in another
settlement on May 27.

“The strategy of the group is to attack different villages over several
days, confusing the strategic response of government forces,” added the
police source.

Cabo Delgado police spokesman Augusto Guto said that “defence and
security forces are on the ground hunting the attackers”.

The May 27 bloodshed occurred in two small villages close to the border
with Tanzania and not far from Palma, a small town gearing up to be the
country’s new natural gas hub in Cabo Delgado.

– ‘An alarming deterioration’ –

Wednesday’s slayings ocurred roughly 100 kilometres (62 miles) from
Pemba, a town that is an emerging tourist destination.

In October, armed men targeted a police station and military post in the
regional town of Mocimboa da Praia in what was believed to be the first
jihadist attack on the country.

Two officers died and 14 attackers were killed.

“It is an alarming deterioration. It has contributed to a climate of
uncertainty and fear in Cabo Delgado,” said Alex Vines, a Mozambique expert
at the London-based Chatham House think-tank.

“International investors are asking questions about the ability of the
Mozambican authorities to both contain and counter this emerging problem.”

The group, often described by locals and officials as “Al-Shabaab”, has
no known link to the Somali jihadist group of the same name.

In the weeks following the initial attacks, at least 300 Muslims,
including Tanzanians, were arrested and several mosques were forced to close.

The increase in attacks in the north of the country could pose serious
issues for Mozambique, which holds general elections next year and hopes to
cash in on the recently discovered gas reserves.

The vast gas deposits discovered off the shores of Palma could transform
the impoverished country’s economy.

Experts predict that Mozambique could even become the world’s third-
largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

But the country’s north has largely been excluded from the economic
growth of the last 20 years, and the region sees itself as a neglected
outpost, creating fertile ground for radical Al-Shabaab-style ideology.

Mozambique last month passed an anti-terrorism law that punishes terror
activity with prison sentences of more than 40 years.

BSS/AFP/RY/1935 hrs