A group of residents of the town of Nguida, in a forest in the interior of Macomia, a district of northern Mozambique ravaged by armed violence, found a lifeless body "riddled with bullets," local sources told Lusa today.

The body of the man had his face hooded with a black scarf with writings in Arabic, which led the community to suspect that it was a member of rebel groups operating in the province of Cabo Delgado and that he had been killed during clashes with government forces, according to a source cited by Lusa.

Another inhabitant of Nguida confirmed to the agency that the locality and the village of Nkoe, both belonging to the district of Macomia, have been under heavy fighting in recent days, with helicopters of the government forces in constant operations in the forests.

"No one has been going to the machambas [agricultural fields] for almost three weeks, there is heavy fighting. Helicopters pass through our villages and sometimes you can hear the sound of guns," the source added.

Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

There are about 800,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and about 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project (Lusa)