Pemba, Mozambique, July 9, 2025 (Lusa) - Local sources told Lusa on Wednesday that at least three fishermen remain unaccounted for after fishing in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, an area that terrorist groups have targeted since 2017.

The sources reported that the three fishermen, from the administrative post of Mucojo, approximately 40 kilometres from Macomia, disappeared on 5 July while carrying out their activities.

“They left home as usual, and haven't returned,” a source in Macomia told Lusa, indicating that local communities suspect terrorist groups, which continue to circulate and attack, especially the administrative post of Quiterajo in the district of Macomia, abducted them.

“If terrorist groups found them, they might have taken them to join the group,” said a local source.

Since the date of their alleged disappearance, search teams have been looking for them, and one of the victims’ relatives told Lusa that they were supposed to have returned home by now, “because they planned to eat what they caught” when they left to go fishing.

The Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS) maintain control of the administrative post of Quiterajo after the population left the area following attacks by armed men.

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 caused more than a million displaced persons, including the death of 349 people in 2024.

The new movements of extremists in northern Mozambique include Niassa, a province neighbouring Cabo Delgado, where, since their outbreak on 29 April, they have caused the deaths of at least two forest rangers whom they beheaded.

RYCE/ADB // ADB.

Lusa