Three women were kidnapped by a group of unknown people, between Saturday and Sunday, in the district of Meluco, Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, according to sources cited by Lusa.

Over the weekend, an armed group attacked the communities of Chicomo and Iba, where they burned houses, kidnapping two women in the first village and another in the second, said one of the sources from Macomia, a village they fled to for safety.

According to the same source, after the attacks in March and April, the people of the two communities were already returning in the expectation that security was restored.

"We were going back, because everything seemed fine, but we were taken by surprise: my family and I are not going back now" he said, adding that he is still packed to continue his trip to Pemba.

Another source said that although there are no reports of deaths, people are fleeing.

"Both I and other people are looking for safe places. Here in the interior the situation is weaker," he said, speaking from the district headquarters of Meluco, 54 kilometers from National Highway 1.

The Meluco district had already been the scene of another kidnapping in late May, when an armed group kidnapped a health technician.