Macomia, Mozambique, June 26, 2025 (Lusa) - The joint force fighting extremism in the province of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, has recaptured the Catupa base recently taken by rebels, a local government source announced on Thursday.
“The terrorists had limited time to operate; our forces swiftly occupied the base and are now controlling the Catupa camp,” Macomia district administrator Tomás Badae told reporters.
The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack the previous day on a Mozambican army camp in Macomia, Cabo Delgado, saying it had killed at least ten soldiers, as previously reported by Lusa.
In a statement posted on its propaganda channels, Islamic State claimed that the attack took place on 27 May, documenting the claim in a photograph, and the Mozambican authorities had yet to confirm it.
The same group added that the alleged attack destroyed the military camp, the second in less than a month, after another similar attack in Muidumbe, which the insurgents said had killed 11 Mozambican soldiers.
A member of the Local Force confirmed to Lusa on 30 May that rebels had invaded the Catupa base: “There was indeed an attempt by terrorists to invade, and I do not yet know whether there were any deaths on either side.”
Speaking to journalists today, the administrator of Macomia said that despite the latest attacks, the district is “relatively calm” and that the “security situation is under control.”
“Thanks to the efforts of the Local Force, the Armed Forces and the friendly forces from Rwanda, the population is calm,” said Tomás Badae.
More than 22,000 people have returned to the administrative posts of Mucojo and Chai in the district of Macomia since the attacks by armed men began, said the administrator, who also announced the resumption of all public services.
Located along the EN380 national road, the district of Macomia is in the centre of Cabo Delgado, 200 kilometres from the provincial capital, Pemba.
The Mozambican Armed Defence Forces and their Rwandan counterparts have been fighting the insurgency in Cabo Delgado since 2017, with the help of the so-called Local Force, which is mainly composed of former guerrilla fighters from the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo). They led the war against the Portuguese colonial regime (1 January 1964 – 1 January 1974) and voluntarily took up arms again to fight the rebel groups.
Since October 2017, the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State, which have displaced more than one million people.
Islamic extremist groups killed at least 349 people in the province in 2024 alone, an increase of 36% over the previous year, according to data recently released by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, an academic institution of the US Department of Defence that analyses conflicts in Africa.
PME/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
