At least ten people were killed at the end of May in a new attack perpetrated by suspected jihadists against a village located near the Mozambican city of Palma, in the north of the country, as confirmed by local sources on Monday.
The attack, whose responsibility has not been claimed, was perpetrated on May 28 and resulted in five beheaded and five shot to death, as reported by the news portal Carta de Mozambique. Confirmations of these attacks often come to light days later because they take place in isolated areas.
These sources have highlighted that the victims had taken refuge in a wooded area around the village of Quiwiya after escaping from a jihadist attack carried out against the village. Most of those killed were fishermen and merchants.
Quiwiya, located about twelve kilometers from Palma, was recently attacked and set on fire by jihadists, causing the population to flee, especially due to the increase in attacks and the increase in insecurity in the area.
Despite this, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) postponed at the end of May its decision on sending troops to Mozambique to face jihadism in Cabo Delgado (north), which it left for an extraordinary summit to be held. on June 20 in this same country.
Since October 2017, the province has been the scene of attacks by Islamist militiamen known as Al Shabaab, unrelated to the homonymous group that operates in Somalia and that maintains ties with Al Qaeda. Since mid-2019, they have been claimed mostly by the Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), which has intensified its actions since March 2020.
Among the ISCA attacks is the one carried out in March against the city of Palma, which sparked clashes that lasted until the beginning of April and caused tens of thousands of displaced persons. For now there is no balance of victims, although the Government has spoken of “hundreds” of deaths.