Maputo — According to local residents, cited by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, islamist terrorists killed at least four people in an attack on Saturday against the Magaia community, in Chiure district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.
"They've been there since Saturday morning', said a relative of one of the victims. "They came in with guns blazing and killed my brother-in-law'.
This source said the raiders killed three other people while they were working on their fields.
Another resident said the jihadists destroyed the local school, and burnt down many houses. Frightened villagers are fleeing from Magaia, and heading for the district capital, Chiure town.
The number of displaced people in the town is sharply increasing. In addition to the mass exodus from Magaia, people are fleeing from the village of Ntonhane, less than10 kilometres from Magaia, for fear of further terrorist attacks.
According to the Chiure district administrator, Oliveira Amimo, this wave of terrorist attacks began on 3 February, when jihadists entered the region, coming from the neighbouring district of Mecufi.
Amimo said the terrorists had earlier attacked the Mazeze administrative post, where they sacked a chapel belonging to the Catholic Church, and burnt down the local health centre, the secretariat of the administrative post, and the residence of the head of the post.
"The infrastructures have basically been destroyed', said Amimo
The self-styled "Islamic State' (IS) terrorist group last Wednesday claimed responsibility for an attack in Macomia district, in which at least 20 people were killed. The IS propaganda channels also boasted of an attack against a position of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), and of a separate raid in Chiure.
The Macomia district administrator, Tomas Badae, on 12 February, confirmed that the terrorists had indeed attacked an FADM position. That attack took place in the Mucojo administrative post, about 45 kilometres from Macomia town on the night of 9 February.
"They took the position', said Badae, "but we don't have any information as to whether they are still there or have left'.
