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More than a week after the jihadists staged a deadly raid on the city of Palma in northern Mozambique, survivors flocked to the port of Pemba, capital of the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado, on Thursday.
Dozens of relatives huddled outside the port, scrambling to spot family members disembarking boats arriving from Palma, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) away.
More than 8,000 people have been displaced, dozens killed and many more remain missing following a coordinated attack on the city of Palma on March 24.
The jihadists have reportedly beheaded residents and ransacked buildings in a rampage that has forced thousands to seek refuge in the surrounding forests.
The attack is considered the biggest escalation of the Islamist insurgency that has ravaged the province of Cabo Delgado since 2017.
On fishing boats or on foot, thousands of survivors fled the city of 75,000 inhabitants – more than 40,000 of whom had already been displaced from their original homes and lived in Palma.
Hundreds more were still arriving in Pemba, the UN said Thursday.
Maps locating the city of Palma, in northern Mozambique, under jihadist attack, and the Mozambique LNG gas site, owned by Total, located about ten kilometers away. By Kenan AUGEARD (AFP) There is “unfortunately no feeling of return to normal,” Juliana Ghazi, of the UN refugee agency, told AFP on Thursday in Johannesburg from Pemba.
A woman wearing a blue denim apron and a pink mask sat on the floor at the port, staring blankly, one hand clutching a fence, waiting for her son.
Another woman consoled her as she broke down in tears.
A ferry carrying nearly 1,200 passengers, mostly women and children, docked at the port overnight.
The most vulnerable escapees, including unaccompanied and injured children, are airlifted to the city – according to the UN, nearly half of the 8,166 people registered as displaced are children.
‘Biggest concern’
The attack on Wednesday was the latest in a series of more than 830 raids organized by militant Islamists over the past three years, killing more than 2,689 and uprooting nearly 700,000.
A ferry carrying nearly 1,200 passengers, mostly women and children, docked at the port overnight. By Alfredo Zuniga (AFP) A South African man was among those killed when a convoy of cars attempting to evacuate survivors from a hotel was ambushed, his family said.
The British Times newspaper reported on Thursday that a Briton was also dead in the ambush and his remains were handed over to the Special Air Services Rescue Team.
The Defense Ministry could not confirm or deny the death.
The African Union called for urgent and coordinated international action to jointly respond to the “urgent threat to regional and continental peace and security”.
In a statement, AU President Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed “the deepest concern” at the presence of international extremist groups in southern Africa, calling for “urgent and coordinated regional and international action”.
More than 8,000 people have been displaced, dozens have been killed and many more remain missing. By Alfredo Zuniga (AFP) The Southern African Regional Development Community held emergency talks in Harare on Wednesday to discuss the violence.
Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi pledged regional aid, but gave no details.
He said that the “integrity and sovereignty” of SADC member states must be ensured and that they must be protected from aggression.
But Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday called the attack “the most important step”, despite its unprecedented proximity to Africa’s largest investment project.
The aid-dependent country sent troops to Palma in an attempt to retake the city.
On Tuesday, Mozambique’s former colonial master, Portugal, announced its intention to send around 60 troops to support them.
The jihadists of Cabo Delgado have wreaked havoc across the province in an attempt to establish a caliphate.
The insurgents are affiliated with the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attack on Palma this week.
strawberries-mgu-sn / gd
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