A humanitarian worker for the French NGO Solidarités International has died following an attack by an armed group in Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique.
The NGO explained that this member of the organization’s local staff was attacked this Sunday while traveling privately on a road to the city of Palma, on the Indian Ocean coast, to participate in the organization’s distribution activities.
«The murder of our colleague and the civilians who were traveling with him shocks and repulses us. In Mozambique or anywhere else, civilians should never be targeted,» said Solidarités International’s director general, Kevin Goldberg, according to a statement from the NGO itself.
«Our first thoughts are with the victims and their families, loved ones and all our partners, affected by the sudden loss of one of our members,» Goldberg added.
Cape Delgado province, hit since 2017 by a spike in jihadist attacks, has seen worsening insecurity in the region. Indeed, last week, Mozambique’s main opposition party, the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), accused the country’s president, Filipe Nyusi, of being «responsible by omission for failing to call on international aid in time.»
The opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) also joined in the criticism, stressing that «there was confusion and chaos in the defense policy». He also denounced that «the people of Cabo Delgado are exhausted and will not tolerate any more suffering».
Cabo Delgado has been the scene since October 2017 of attacks by Islamist militiamen known as Al Shabaab, unrelated to the eponymous group operating in Somalia with ties to Al Qaeda. Since mid-2019 they have been mostly claimed by ISCA, which has stepped up its actions since March 2020.
