Maputo: Dozens of people were killed as hundreds of Islamic militants targeted shops, banks and a military barracks in Palma, a town in northern Mozambique. Seven people were killed trying to escape a siege on a hotel, said Omar Saranga, a spokesperson from the country's defence department. Militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group are behind the conflict in the predominantly Muslim region.
The fighting has left more than 2,500 people dead and 700,000 displaced since the insurgency began in 2017. Hundreds of others, both locals and foreigners, were reportedly rescued from Palma after the attack. Marine traffic websites showed a string of vessels around the town, and the port of Pemba to the south, as people tried to escape by any means - cargo vessels, passenger ships, tugs and recreational boats. Palma is near a major gas project run by the French energy giant Total, and more than 100 workers and civilians took refuge in the town's Amarula Palma hotel.
One contractor said that many who escaped the hotel via convoy hid at the beach overnight and were evacuated by boat. One source close to the rescue operation said that a boat with about 1,400 people on board had arrived in the port town of Pemba, which is about 250 km south of Palma, on Sunday afternoon. The exact number of casualties in Palma, a town of about 75,000 people in Cabo Delgado province, is unclear. Many are still unaccounted for.
The town and beaches are strewn with bodies "with heads and without", according to Col Lionel Dyke, whose private security firm, Dyck Advisory Group, is contracted by the Mozambique police in the area. The armed group is reported to have taken control of Palma, but those claims are hard to verify amid a communications blackout. There are unconfirmed reports of British citizens being caught up in the hotel siege. The UK parliamentary under-secretary of state for Africa, James Duddridge, tweeted that the government was contacting Britons in the area to provide support, adding: "The UK wholeheartedly condemns the appalling violence in Cabo Delgado. It must stop. We stand with the people of Mozambique against terror."
