Mozambique: Insurgent Food Raid on Macomia Was Big and Well Organised

The insurgent raid on Macomia town Friday morning 10 May was the largest and best organised since the insurgents took the coastal town of Mucojo, 40km east of Macomia town, on 10 February. The raid was mainly intended to take food and supplies to Mucojo, which is still insurgent-held.

There was a warning. There was a celebration in Macomia on Thursday afternoon and Cabo Delgado Governor Valige Tauabo attended and was said to be staying the night, but instead returned to Pemba in the late afternoon. Security services said they detained three suspected insurgents in Macomia town a few days before. Local people reported messages from the insurgents saying they were hungry and were coming to take food and would not harm local people. One NGO driver hid his car in the bush to avoid it being taken.

Macomia is at a main crossroads and by 3 am there were phone messages saying insurgents were coming into town on all four roads. By 4 am shooting could be heard and local people and NGO staff fled on foot into the bush, walking several hours to safer places. The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said the attackers were “hundreds of insurgents”.

A police station next to the airstrip and a Mozambican military (FADM) base were attacked, and the base of several hundred SANDF soldiers still serving with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) was besieged. After an initial 45-minute-long attack on Macomia, the insurgents fell back in what seemed a planned regrouping, breaking into two groups. One group was to keep the military occupied and outside of town; for example, they continued attacks on the SAMIM base for four hours.

But the main purpose of the raid was to take food, as local people were reminded. The second insurgent group cleared warehouses and loaded food and other goods onto at least 15 vehicles which were taken, including large trucks. The main target was the ICRC warehouse but Care, Foundation Against Hunger, and MSF were also stripped. The vehicles and cargo were driven Friday afternoon to Mucojo on the coast.

The SAMIM base was being run down with troops getting ready to leave, and South African soldiers had few vehicles and limited ammunition, so they refused to leave the base. They admit that after three and a half hours they were down to only five magazines of ammunition.

Contact was made with both SAMIM in Pemba and Rwanda forces in Mocimboa da Praia. Both sent troops and both were ambushed. Four South African armoured Casspirs were sent from Pemba, but at about 5 pm 20 km south of Macomia, they were attacked. Two hit mines or IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and the vehicles never reached the SAMIM base; fighting around the Casspirs continued for several hours. Later a South African Air Force Oryx helicopter carrying four Special Forces soldiers and extra ammunition arrived.

DefenceWeb says “It appears that Rwandan Defence Force soldiers based at Mocimboa da Praia were also stopped in their tracks by a heavily armed group of insurgents while trying to get to the besieged town.”

Insurgents kept control of Macomia on Saturday. Residents and NGO officials returned on Sunday and found the administration building and police station destroyed, the local small hotel (Pensao MM) looted and burned, the market largely destroyed, and cars burned. At least ten people were killed, mostly military, apparently including one insurgent leader and one government militia head. Four NGO staff were taken with the food, 3 MSF and 1 ICRC.

NGO staff were evacuated on Sunday after FADM were paid bribes to allow them to leave. Although the government controlled Macomia on Sunday, there was a shooting Sunday night, and again residents fled to the bush.

The two-day occupation was well organised and one of the largest in some time, and local people were warned. Macomia had previously been occupied by the insurgents in May 2020.

Some of the insurgents moved south along the N380 main road and attacked the village of Missufine on Saturday at about 6 pm. The village is in Silva Macau town and is on the main N1 road west of Pemba. Houses were burned during the four-hour raid.

This report is based on detailed information from a Mozambican NGO worker who was there, AIM, Zitamar, Carta de Moçambique, Focus Group, and two articles on DefenceWeb which has good South African military links. (12 and 13 May. A video of people fleeing on foot. The IOM Movement alert on the attack and people fleeing,  with good maps.