JOHANNESBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2021) The Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) has claimed responsibility for the recent attack on the town of Palma in Mozambique, French media reported on Monday.
Earlier in the day, a representative of a local civil rights group Women's and Girls Association, told Sputnik that at least 57 people, among them seven foreigners, were killed in last week's militant attack.
According to the France 24 channel's analyst, Wassim Nasr, the IS operating in Central Africa has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Islamist groups attacked Palma, a small town in northern Mozambique, this past Wednesday. In total, approximately 2,000 foreign workers fled Palma after the militant attack. They are now in the capital of the volatile province of Cabo Delgado, Pemba, where victims are receiving humanitarian assistance. Many Palma residents are still hiding in forests. The Palma town itself has been practically destroyed in the ambush.
Sputnik learned from the Dubai-based RA International group, which provides remote site services, that eight of its employees were in Palma at the time of the attack, with seven Mozambican staff at the RA office and one UK national at the Amarula Hotel.
"On Sunday afternoon we located the 7 local staff, but one UK national is still unaccounted for. Our last communication with him was on Friday afternoon after which he was part of a convoy of vehicles that left the Amarula Hotel later that day. There are conflicting reports that he may have been killed whilst trying to leave the area, but this is unconfirmed, and we are working with the authorities to try to establish what has happened," the company said.
Since 2017, there have been a total of 829 violent attacks carried out in Mozambique, with as many as 2,658 deaths, 1,341 of which were civilians. The number of displaced people has increased at an alarming rate with the figure now at 700,000, according to Martin Ewi, an organized crime observatory coordinator with the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies, who also told Sputnik that the United States was weighing in on the matter.
On March 10, the US Department of State designated the affiliates of the Islamic State operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique as foreign terrorist organizations.
"The announcement ... by the US State Department on the designation of the Islamic State in the Democratic Republic of Congo ISIS DRC and ISIS Mozambique came at an opportune moment when the insurgency in Mozambique desperately needs a boost. The designation of Abu Yassa Hassan known as Abu Kim a Tanzanian national and ISIS Mozambique under the 2001 executive order carries several implications," Ewi said.
The expert further noted that the US sanctions on the IS group in Mozambique meant that all property and transactions of designated individuals in the United States were blocked.
"Given the US global reach and cooperation with a vast number of countries particularly in Africa or in Southern Africa, the designation is expected to raise awareness on ISIS Mozambique; this too has both good and bad effects. The key impact of the designation will increase US involvement in the fight of terrorism in Cabo Delgado and increased US intervention and broaden US's surveillance of all terrorists, especially in Africa," Ewin noted.
John Godfrey, the acting US coordinator for counterterrorism and acting special envoy for the global coalition to defeat the Islamic State, said on March 11 that the presence of the foreign military contractors in the Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique complicated the government's efforts to fight terrorism.
Earlier this month, Amnesty International said that a South African private military firm hired by the Mozambican government to fight an insurgency has been indiscriminately attacking civilians.
More than 1,300 civilians have been killed since the start of the conflict, according to data provided by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. The United Nations estimates that the fighting has displaced 530,000 people, nearly half of them children.
