After the "ISIS" took control of it
Palma Mozambique is a ghost town
Citizens waiting for boats to arrive from Palma, loaded with people fleeing the crimes of "ISIS" in Pemba.
EPA
Citizens carry bags filled with carbon to be stacked on the beaches of Bacotikit, waiting for the arrival of boats carrying escapees from the crimes of "ISIS".
A.F.B.
picture
The terrorist organization "ISIS" announced control of the port city of Palma in northern Mozambique on Monday, following an attack that it began last Wednesday that caused thousands of its residents to flee by sea and on foot.
Starting Wednesday, terrorists attacked the small coastal city of Palma of 75,000, located about 10 kilometers from a huge gas project run by the French group Total, which is expected to start production in 2024.
Dozens of civilians have been killed in recent days as a result of the attack, while thousands continue to flee the area, using all available means, according to witnesses and sources.
The organization stated in a statement published by the accounts of armed groups on the Telegram application: “The (ISIS) members launched a massive attack” on the city on Wednesday, as “the clashes continued for three days, during which various types of weapons were used, and military barracks and government headquarters were attacked.”
According to the statement, the attack resulted in "controlling the city, including after killing" dozens of "the Mozambican army and civilian citizens, including citizens of Christian countries, and wounding dozens", in addition to "controlling government buildings, factories, companies and banks."
On Monday evening, ISIS published a video in which about 100 of its fighters, most of them young men, appeared on their heads with red handkerchiefs or scarves, and some of them wore military uniforms, and the other part wore civilian clothes.
The video, published by the organization's "Amaq" agency, was filmed, according to what a number of experts said, to "Agence France-Presse" in Mocimboa de Bria, another port in the region that the militants seized.
Experts were unable to say exactly when this video was filmed.
Dozens of people were killed in the widespread attack carried out by the terrorist group from three fronts, which is the largest escalation of the armed rebellion that has hit northern Mozambique since 2017.
escape
Some of the survivors fled to the gas project site, where they were transported to the provincial capital, Pemba, in boats.
Many residents walked for days through forests to seek refuge in the neighboring town of Moida, 180 kilometers south of Palma, arriving exhausted with swollen feet.
One of the escapees, who preferred not to give his name, stated that "along the way ... many people fell from fatigue, and they were unable to continue walking, especially the elderly and children."
"The attacks began shortly after the arrival of a large ship carrying food," one of the survivors told AFP in an email.
"They attacked the city and brought trucks to carry food," he said.
Gentile concern
In turn, the United Nations "strongly condemned the attacks" on the coastal city, as its spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Monday.
"We are very concerned about the situation that is still developing in Palma, where armed attacks began on March 24, killing dozens of people, some of whom were trying to flee from a hotel they had taken refuge in," he said.
Survivor boats
Traditional boats continue to arrive at Pemba from Palma, carrying thousands of displaced people, according to several sources.
Sources told aid agencies that 6,000 to 10,000 people were waiting to be evacuated after the attack on Palma.
The attack forced foreign and local workers to take shelter temporarily at a heavily guarded gas station, on the Avongi Peninsula, six kilometers from Palma on the Indian Ocean coast south of the border with neighboring Tanzania.
Operations are underway to transfer them to Pemba, some 250 kilometers south of Palma.
And on Sunday, a large passenger ship named "Sea Star" arrived with about 1,400 people on board, most of them workers at the gas project site, including employees of "Total".
"The authorities indicated that another ship arrived the day before yesterday (Monday)," an Agence France-Presse source said.
Thousands of others are still stranded in Avungi, and they are expected to arrive by sea soon. The army and police forces have imposed a security cordon in the area, preventing access to where boats reach.
The regional capital, Bemba, hosts hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the armed rebellion, which has displaced nearly 700,000 people from their homes in the vast region.
Targeting fleeing
Witnesses told "Human Rights Watch", the human rights organization, that the attackers shot people in homes and in the streets, "while they were trying to flee for their lives."
According to Agence France-Presse witnesses, the gunmen attacked banks and police stations first, before attacking the rest of the town.
The identity of the leaders of these rebels is still unknown, knowing that they are known locally as "Al-Shabab", but they declared their allegiance to ISIS in 2019.
The attack forced foreign and local workers to take shelter temporarily at a heavily guarded gas station on the Avongi Peninsula, six kilometers from Palma, on the Indian Ocean coast south of the border with neighboring Tanzania.
Many residents walked for days through forests in search of shelter in the neighboring town of Moida, 180 kilometers south of Palma, where they arrived exhausted and their feet swollen.
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