The city of Palma in northeastern Mozambique is being evacuated following the terrorist attack that began on Wednesday, March 24. The jihadists from the Al-Shabab group, affiliated with the Islamic State group, had taken control of this city with 75,000 inhabitants in the province of Cabo Delgado. Mozambican security forces are now there, facing “terrorist pockets”, according to a national television bulletin. According to the Mozambican government, dozens of people have been killed since Wednesday in Palma.
Dozens of people have been killed in a large-scale jihadist attack since Wednesday in Palma, in northern Mozambique, the Mozambican government announced on Sunday. Seven people were killed in an ambush when security forces tried to evacuate nearly 200 people fenced in at the Amarula hotel, the Ministry of Defense said at a press conference.
A group of terrorists hid in the capital of the Palma district. They unleashed acts that culminated in the cowardly killing of dozens of defenseless people and material damage to government infrastructure, said Omar Saranga, a spokesman for the Mozambican Ministry of Defense.
On the lawn of a hotel in Palma, SOS staff wrote in large letters, reminiscent of our correspondent in the region, Romain Chanson. About twenty will be rescued, but research is still ongoing. On the run from the fighting, many inhabitants dispersed on foot and hid in the vegetation, which made their situation difficult. “A colleague walked 150 km,” says the hotel owner.
An attack that lasted since Wednesday
The lack of telecommunications since the attack began on Wednesday has further slowed down the search, with many foreigners in the area. They are working on the site of a huge gas project run by Total, which is only ten kilometers from the city of Palma.
“They have been targeted and this is the first time,” said a Christian missionary who was more accustomed to the Al-Shabab group’s actions against the villagers.
Foreign workers from Palma are filtered by boat to the city of Pemba, 400 km south of the besieged town. The fate of the thousands of refugees who formed part of the population of Palma is not known, nor is the number of victims. Since the terrorist attack began in 2017, the conflict has left more than 600,000 displaced and 2,600 dead.
♦ In total, most of their employees return from Afungis website
Paralyzed for several months, the gas project piloted by French Total would resume last Thursday, but the large-scale attack, launched by the Al-Shabab group in the city of Palma, ten kilometers from the gas site, will put a new stop to the site. He was interrupted for the first time, in January last year, already after jihadist intrusion, and the staff had just returned to the scene.
Today, Total returns most of its employees from Afungi’s website to Maputo, leaving only the smallest there, according to a statement. In recent months, Mozambique has on several occasions called for operations to secure the region to reassure the French industrialist.
The project, developed jointly by Total, Italian ENI and American Exxon Mobil, is considered crucial for the Mozambican economy.
It weighs $ 60 billion and aims to make the country a world gas power within a few years. In particular, Total must build a gas plant and a port together with its partners. The project would start to appear in 2024, but the deterioration of the security situation risks causing significant delays.
