A group of suspected terrorists invaded the village of Muaja and kidnapped several civilians today, according to community sources speaking to Lusa. The village is located along National Road 14 (N14) in the Ancuabe district, a central area of Mozambique’s volatile Cabo Delgado province.
Local witnesses reported that the insurgents arrived early in the morning, seizing young men and adolescents. “They arrived very early in the vicinity and took some youths and teenagers to a place I don’t know, but some said they were heading toward Montepuez,” a source from Ancuabe stated.
The presence of the armed group triggered a mass exodus from Muaja as villagers fled in fear of a full-scale assault. While no fatalities were immediately reported, the alleged insurgent activity disrupted vehicle traffic on the critical transit stretch between Metoro and Montepuez.
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Cabo Delgado, a region rich in natural gas, has been besieged by extremist violence for eight years, dating back to the first recorded attack in Mocímboa da Praia on October 5, 2017. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) estimates that the province has seen 6,527 deaths since the insurgency began.
According to the latest ACLED report covering April 6 to April 19, the region recorded 11 violent events in the last two weeks alone. Ten of those incidents involved Islamic State-affiliated extremists, resulting in nine deaths. Of the 2,356 violent events recorded since 2017, the vast majority—2,184—have been linked to elements associated with Islamic State Mozambique (EIM).
