MAPUTO, May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Mozambican defence and security forces have pushed back an attack by militants against the village of Nacoba, in Metuge district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, reports Carta de Moçambique.
The newspaper says that the raiders burnt down a tourist camp used by the Quirimbas National Park on Tuesday, which included 20 huts and 15 cows and goats.
However, there were no human casualties, due to the prompt response of the Mozambican forces.
The villagers had received advance notice that there might be an attack and so most of them had left the village before the fighting began.
This clash follows an attack a week ago at a funeral in Imbada village, also in Meluco.
Friends and relatives were preparing to bury the deceased when a gang of men armed with machetes and firearms invaded the cemetery.
The militants caught and beheaded four people, while others attending the funeral fled in panic.
They returned hours later to complete the ceremony, and collect the bodies of the four victims.
Meanwhile, Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi prolonged by a month the state of emergency ordered on April 1 to try to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.
Under the state of emergency, movement of people within the country is restricted, schools are shut and no foreigners are allowed into the country.
Infections in the southern African country have now risen to 76, of which more than three-quarters originated from Total’s LNG project site in northern Mozambique.
The French company owns a $25 billion stake in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Cabo Delgado province, near the border with Tanzania.
— NNN-AGENCIES
