The Armed Forces and Defense of Mozambique (FADM) have returned control of the town of Sabe, where a former RENAMO military base is located, to the local government in the district of Morrubala, Zambezia province.

The feat was made possible after two weeks of clashes with a group of criminals who had taken hostage, raped and trained almost 300 people recruited from nearby areas.

For about two months, the fake Naparamas controlled Sabe. Three companies of special forces were deployed to deal with the invasion.

At the former RENAMO base, the FADM managed to free more than 280 women who had been held captive, where they were even sexually assaulted in the presence of their spouses.

"There were more than 280 women and children at this base, and these women were recruited here in the villages of the Sabe administrative post. And these evildoers were already creating unrest in the Morrumbala district, on the N1 road. Those who call themselves Naparamas, but we as the Armed Forces, through military counterintelligence, were told that they were not Naparamas. They are criminals who have recruited children and young people in this district of Morrumbala, as we saw at the training camp there. There were women here being raped in front of their husbands, because these women were only here to force their husbands to be at the base as well. The base once belonged to the now-defunct RENAMO forces," said FADM Brigadier Bernardo Ntchokomala.

The Brigadier assured that the town has now been cleared; people have been sent to their villages and towns; and a health team has been requested to assist the victims.

"We're sorry because some of the women who left gave birth here in the bush. We asked the Morrumbala district government to send a technical medical team to assist these women who gave birth here in the bush," he said, noting that children and young people who received training there acquired malaria.

The administrator of Morrumbala, João Nhanbessa, thanked the FADM for their work.

"We have the utmost respect for the work they are doing," he said, quoted today by STV.