Maputo — Armed men, believed to be from the self-styled “Renamo Military Junta” killed one Mozambican woman and injured a Zimbabwean man in an ambush on Tuesday morning on the main road from Beira to the Zimbabwean border.
The ambush took place at about 05.00 in the Nharichonga area, in Nhamatanda district, in the central province of Sofala. A bus and three long distance trucks came under fire.
The woman who lost her life was a passenger in the bus. The injured Zimbabwean was driving one of the trucks. He is now receiving medical care in the Nhamatanda Rural Hospital.
The vehicles suffered severe damage. One of the trucks was completely destroyed after the attackers looted it and set it on fire.
The driver of this truck told AIM “I left Nhamatanda at 05.00, and when I reached here I heard the first shot, which was against one of my front tyres. The truck began to swerve, and I heard two other shots which hit the cabin. I stopped the vehicle and I ran”.
He ran into the bush “and from where I was I saw them attack two other trucks and a bus. By that time, the front of my truck was on fire. They took all my goods and then left”.
The Zimbabweam, Moses Chingizi, told AIM from his hospital bed that he was hit by three bullets in his arm and legs. He said that, when he reached the ambush site, he saw the first vehicle burning.
“I heard shots and I tried to accelerate my truck”, he continued. “I felt that I had been hit. I lost control, but I managed to bring the truck to a halt.”
He fled into the bush, and from there he saw the attackers, wearing uniform and brandishing guns. “Shortly afterwards the police arrived and began to fire”, said Chingizi. “It was then that we came out of the bush and I showed myself to the police. They took me to the hospital”.
The clinical director of the Nhamatanda hospital, Miquitaio Torres, said that, despite multiple gunshot wounds, Chingizi was out of danger. He also confirmed that a woman aged about 50 had died in the attack.
This was the fourth ambush against civilian vehicles in Sofala in the space of a week.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique