To escape Islamic terrorists who attacked a town in northern Mozambique, more than 180 people - including some foreigners and employees of the Total group - fled to a hotel where they have been under siege for three days waiting to be rescued by government forces.
This was reported by the website of the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle citing government sources, other media and the NGO Human Right Watch and specifying that the attack is underway in the province of Cabo Delgado.
The attacked town is Palma, the capital of the homonymous district of Cabo Delgado, the province for over three years under attack by the Al-Shabaab jihadists, only homonyms of the Somali ones but notoriously more bloodthirsty, so much so that in the past it also hit children.
The terrorists had launched an attack on Wednesday afternoon, firing indiscriminately and forcing the locals to flee into the surrounding forests and, according to witnesses, killing an unspecified number of people.
The onslaught began after French energy giant Total announced a gradual resumption of work on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
Total is the largest investor in the region and other companies such as ExxonMobil also operate in the area.
The LNG site workers sought refuge in the "Amarula" hotel, which the military is now trying to bring to safety with aircraft.
In a video posted on social media, in addition to a helicopter, a man can be heard saying that the hotel has run out of food and has only water available.
Due to the action of the jihadists and the counter-offensive by the Mozambican security forces, more than 2,600 people died in the conflict in Cabo Delgado from October 2017 to last February, including over 1,300 ("Acled" data).
