Farmers from Macomia, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, who had abandoned their fields due to clashes between the authorities and terrorists, have begun to return to their fields, community sources told Lusa.
These are farmers from Namigure and Nambine, who have been farming between the town of Macomia and the administrative post of Mucojo, which they had abandoned since June due to the intense clashes.
‘We’re already on our way back, even though the atmosphere is no less good, but time is passing and the fields are still intact,’ said a source from Macomia, who is part of the returnees to Namigure.
The farmers had abandoned the agricultural fields because of the military clashes between the armed forces on the ground and the rebels in the Mucojo and Quiterajo forests, 40 and 70 kilometres from Macomia, respectively. They now report that the latest developments on the ground give them some hope of safety.
‘There are people working in my area, and I’m going there. Time is running out, in two or three months it will start raining and those who don’t prepare will have nothing,’ another farmer from Nambine told Lusa.
According to the sources, the armed forces have stepped up patrols in the production areas to maintain the security that allows the farmers to work.
‘Sometimes we receive the local force, which has done an excellent job of patrolling our fields, and this encourages us to work,’ he said.
On September 25, the Armed Defence Forces of Mozambique and their counterparts in Rwanda announced that they had shot down ten terrorists in an attack that also resulted in the death of military personnel in the forests of the Mucojo administrative post.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said on Friday that in recent weeks, ‘several terrorists have been put out of action and important camps have been destroyed’ by the insurgents in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Nyusi was speaking during the commemorations of Peace Day, a date alluding to the signing of the Peace Agreement, which ended 16 years of civil war in Mozambique, and also assured that ‘war and propaganda material’ in the possession of the insurgents had been captured.
‘It is true that we continue to face the challenge of terrorism in Cabo Delgado, whose fight has been successful, with the dismantling of the terrorists‘ actions and a reduction in attacks and the return of populations’ to their areas of origin, he said.
Since October 2017, the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State.
The last major attack took place on 10 and 11 May on the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents sacking the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces and Rwandan soldiers, who are supporting Mozambique in the fight against the rebels.
Since the beginning of August, different sources on the ground, including the local force, have reported intense clashes between the joint military mission and the insurgents in the forests of the Mucojo administrative post (Macomia), involving helicopters, armoured vehicles and heavily armed men, with reports of shootings in places considered to be hiding places for these groups.
Source: Lusa
