BBC report: "Mozambique Palma terror attack: 'I can't go back'"

The city of Palma in northern Mozambique was the scene of a horrific attack by Islamist militants a year ago that left dozens of people dead, forced thousands to flee their homes and halted a huge gas project nearby. BBC Africa correspondent Catherine Byaruhanga spoke to some survivors of the attacks to see if there are any changes yet.

Fear Still Invades Palma

Before the well-coordinated attack began, the coastal town was full and bustling - full of people who had come to look for work in the area's booming gas industry.

It was also filled with thousands of people who had fled violence in other parts of Cabo Delgado, the mostly Muslim province where the Islamist insurgency began in 2017.

The militants are known locally as al-Shabab. They have no connection to the Somali group by that name, but have since pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.

Currently, the multi-billion dollar gas project of French energy giant Total remains closed.

Some of those who have begun to return home are too afraid to talk to the BBC on the phone, even though the insurgents have already been driven out.

Antonio [fictitious name], one of the contractors who had gone to the city to work in the gas industry, is not hopeful about the future.

Despite the deployment of regional troops to fight al-Shabab, the 36-year-old, says he does not see himself returning.

"I don't think I can go back there," Antonio said in an interaction via Zoom from southern Mozambique, where he is still struggling to find work.

Antonio remains traumatized by the events that, four days after the March 24 siege, saw insurgents break through the gate of his workplace where he, his brother and other contractors - some from Zimbabwe and South Africa - were hiding in prefabricated buildings.

"I heard the shooting. [Shouts of] 'Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! And then, when I opened my curtains, I saw some people standing together at the main gate. They were wearing green clothes with a red cloth on their heads," he described.

The invaders failed to open his bedroom door, but 16 men, including his brother and three cousins who had locked themselves in a safe room, were discovered.

"They started shouting, 'Oh, we found people! We found people! Come on! Come on,'" he recalled.

Nine militants then took the men into the bush and beheaded them.

Antonio, who was eventually rescued by helicopter from the compound by the private security firm Dyck Advisory Group, says the bodies of his brother and cousins were never found or returned to the family.

"Al-Shabab are ghosts, there is no stopping them," he said.

This sentiment sums up the difficult nature of confronting insurgents who are able to merge into the local community and rural areas.

The insurgency continues

The terror that took place in Palma pressured Mozambique to accept foreign aid. Last July, about 2,000 soldiers from Rwanda and 1,000 soldiers from several southern African countries arrived in Cabo Delgado.

Over the course of several weeks, they drove Al-Shabab fighters out of many of their bases.

This has only meant that the jihadists have moved into the dense forests and surrounding regions, from where they stage attacks of lesser intensity.

"It changed the nature of the insurgency - it changed the nature of the war, but the war continues," says Eric Morier-Genoud, an analyst and reader in African history at Queen's University, Belfast.

Wesley Nel, who is South African and among several foreigners caught in the siege at the luxury Amarula hotel in Palma, agrees.

In a desperate attempt to escape, he and about a hundred other people fled towards the beach. But the militants were already there waiting and his brother Adrian was killed in the ambush.

"Every two or three days the insurgents attack. This is not over yet. Nobody seems to care. If you are in Africa nobody cares" said Wesley Nel, a South African who survived the assault on Palma.

"Every day I remember that moment on the train, trying to escape and my brother getting shot... [what] is hard still is to see it happening.

"Every two or three days, the insurgents attack. This is not over yet. Nobody seems to care. If you're in Africa, nobody cares."

It was the plight of those caught in the hotel - white foreigners asking for help to be rescued - that really caught the attention of the world's media.

Veteran Ugandan journalist Charles Onyango-Obbo, who recently visited Palma, says that life there is slowly returning to normal, although many buildings are still in ruins.

The Amarula is one that has been extensively restored; the hotel has been partially reopened and expects to be fully operational soon, he said in his report for The East African newspaper.

Is this an indication that Total may return?

Rwandan forces have secured Palma, as well as the strategic port town of Mocímboa da Praia, which has an airport and port needed for Total's gas projects on the neighboring Afungi peninsula.