In Mozambique, the port city of Palma, in the northeastern part of the country, fell into the hands of jihadist fighters on Saturday who have promised faith in the Islamic group after several days of fighting. A surprise attack was launched on Wednesday and caused hundreds of people to flee. According to security sources, the fighting in the area continues after all.
The situation in Palma is uncertain tonight. But security sources quoted by AFP admit that the city has really fallen into the hands of jihadist commands that suddenly went on the attack on Wednesday, after weeks of calm.
“Almost everything was destroyed and many people died,” explains the employee at the gas site controlled by the company Total, which is ten kilometers away. It should be noted, however, that telephone communications are encrypted by the authorities, which makes it difficult to verify facts: most of the information comes from people who have managed to escape.
And these witnesses tell of three days of terror, in the face of violence and the scale of the attack. As of Wednesday, hundreds of people had fled into the forest, others sought refuge in the enclosure of the gas station or in a nearby hotel, the Amarula Hotel. Evacuation operations were then organized by trucks and boats, but many evacuees ended up in deadly ambush, reports Reuters.
It has been three years since the group called Al-Shabab – as in Somalia – carried out attacks in the Muslim province of Cabo Delgado, a province rich in natural gas on the border with Tanzania. The Palma attack is the most destructive and most spectacular to date.
