An armed group invaded in Chitunda, a neighborhood in the district headquarters of Nangade and killed by beheading three civilians, all displaced from war, before the attack was repelled by regional Southern African troops helping Mozambique fight terrorism in Cabo Delgado, several local sources told VOA on Thursday 28.

The group of about 10 men all wearing hoods entered the neighborhood early Tuesday morning, the 26th, and also burned about 30 houses and looted various goods, including foodstuffs, in a more daring raid on a district headquarters.

"The insurgents retreated as soon as the troop went to fight" the group, Abdul Assane, a resident of Nangade, told VOA, and added that the troop's posture was what "prevented the insurgents from entering the village."

The attacked neighborhood hosted many displaced people from Mocímboa da Praia, and the three victims of the attack are from that district, said another source, stating that several shelters were also burned.

Another source suspects that the attackers came out of Tanzania, and used the low-lying area to enter the village and by the "two of the insurgents were captured" during the fighting.

"These insurgents had been near the village since July 24. Many people knew they were close, but we were safe because the SADC troop is here protecting us," said a resident of Nangade, noting that some people fled the village before the attack.

More attacks and deaths

In Mocímboa da Praia, the Islamic State-linked group burned dozens of houses, properties and vehicles in Mitope village, where they also killed one person, who had just returned to the district, almost two years after fleeing the insurgency.

At the southernmost tip of Cabo Delgado, in another attack on the village of Mehicane in the Ancuabe district, terrorists beheaded five people and also destroyed numerous precarious huts that housed local residents, another local source said.

This attack occurred on July 17, at a time when more troops were being sent to survey and occupy the Kathupa area, between the districts of Macomia and Mocímboa da Praia, where the joint force deactivated the insurgents' second largest base this month.

Meanwhile, in a statement this week, the Islamic State announced the loss of insurgents in Messalo, in the Macomia district, which actually references the same region with the overrun base.

"Al Nabaa: Opposition government announcement of insurgent losses in Messalo (Macomia)," reads the statement in Arabic broadcast on social media.

Jasmine Opperman, an expert in data analysis of armed conflict, writes on her Twitter page that this is "IS-Moz's first response on casualties in the fighting" compared to the successive gains reported to the public, she says displaying the statement.

Also in a statement issued on July 25, the Southern African regional mission (SAMIN) mourned the death of a colonel member of the Lesotho Defense Force, who died during a patrol in the village of Chibau, Nangade district, on July 22. Seven other members of the force were injured in the ambush.

The radical Islamist-inspired insurgency erupted in 2017, leaving at least 4,000 according to ACLED and some 870,000 displaced. The insurgents' brutal tactics-including beheadings, mass kidnappings, and the burning of entire villages-continue to rock the region.