The village of Ntontwe — located on the main road linking the northeast and south of the restive Cabo Delgado province — has been attacked several times by jihadists.
“Our village was attacked. My house was burnt down. A total of 43 houses in our village were burnt down and three people were killed,” said a village leader from Ntontwe, describing Wednesday’s attack.
Security sources confirmed the same death toll.
The village is located some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Chinda, home to a major military base of Rwanda’s armed forces, deployed to combat attacks by armed groups that have plagued the province since October 2017.
But they arrived too late to repel the attack on Ntontwe.
“The Rwandan troops came to help us, but when they arrived the insurgents had already done everything they wanted,” the village leader added.
“They had plundered and burnt the stalls and had burnt down almost all the houses in the village.”
Ntontwe had been abandoned for years but residents began returning last year, with local authorities putting the population at around 5,000 people in October.
NGOs including Medecins Sans Frontieres and Solidarites International were providing food, drinking water and other basic services to displaced people returning to the village.
The Mozambique Defence Armed Forces had set up a position in Ntontwe to defend the population and their property.
“When the attack began, our military were here, but they disappeared and we don’t know how,” said another community leader from the village.
“It seems they also fled with the people and took off their uniforms so as not to be easily identified, since the insurgents are after the military first.”
Forces from Rwanda and other African countries, deployed in July 2021 after years of jihadist attacks, have helped Mozambique retake control of much of the province.
