According to a local parish priest, Jose Luis, cited by the Portuguese news agency Lusa, the attacks, near the small town of Muxungue, did not result in any fatalities. The most dangerous part of the road is the 100 kilometre stretch between the Save river and Muxungue.
Vehicles using this stretch travel in convoy, under military escort, but this did not prevent the attacks. Five people were injured, and were treated at the Muxungue Rural Hospital. According to hospital sources none of them were injured seriously enough to be hospitalised.
Renamo has also dug a second trench in the road, which slows down the convoys. The first trench was dug across the road in November, obliging the armed forces (FADM) to station troops there to protect vehicles from attack as they negotiate the damaged part of the road.
Digging trenches across the road was a tactic used by Renamo during the war of destabilisation, and was part of the reason why no vehicles could drive from Maputo to Beira for more than a decade.
Post published in: Africa News