A soldier waits at the port of Pemba for refugees from the city of Palma in Mozambique, April 1, 2021. – AFP
The authorities do not want to give the jihadists time to settle in Palma, a town in Mozambique which fell on the night of March 26 to 27 after a bloody attack on the 24th. For this, the military launched operations, still ongoing , against the rebels. “A significant number of terrorists have been shot,” Palma operations commander Chongo Vidigal said on Sunday.
In the devastated city of 75,000 inhabitants, whose first images since the attack were broadcast on local television, the military official added that he could smell “the smell of the corpses of terrorists”. The footage showed a few bodies still lying in the streets, houses in ruins and vehicles in ashes. A few civilians too, collecting food. The attack, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, officially killed dozens of civilians, police and soldiers. The actual number of victims is not yet known.