Pemba, Mozambique, June 2, 2026 (Lusa) - Residents of Mandela, in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, told Lusa on Tuesday that their farmlands had been looted, blaming groups of alleged terrorists for the incidents in that part of the Muidumbe district.

According to the sources, the looting took place last Sunday in the second-season maize fields on the banks of the Messalo River, at the Nova Família camp, some 60 kilometres from the Muidumbe district headquarters.

“Unfortunately, the terrorists went through our fields and took the maize and beans that were in the granaries,” a source from Muidumbe told Lusa.

He added that the insurgents also destroyed nearly two hectares of tobacco crops.

“They destroyed them on the banks of the Messalo, and this leaves us devastated. It was our hope after everything we’ve been through,” he lamented.

Some locals have fled the area to the district headquarters in Muidumbe, fearing attacks, he explained.

Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency linked to extremist groups associated with the Islamic State, a conflict that has displaced more than a million people, according to data from international organisations.

The organisation ACLED recorded 10 violent incidents in two weeks in the province of Cabo Delgado, nine involving Islamic State extremists, which killed 26 people, bringing the death toll since 2017 to 6,570.

According to the latest report from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) organisation, covering data from 4 to 17 May, of the 2,384 violent incidents recorded since October 2017, when the armed insurgency began in Cabo Delgado, 2,203 involved elements associated with Islamic State Mozambique.

RYCE/ADB // ADB.

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