[imagesource: DAG / Reuters]

It’s been more than a week since insurgents from a local Islamist organisation called Allu Sunna wa Jama or al-Shabaab, or ISIS-Mozambique (known locally as al-Shabaab), infiltrated Palma and began to mercilessly attack residents, workers, and business owners.

The official death toll is not yet known, and won’t be for some time, with Jasmine Opperman, an analyst with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, saying an estimate of 400 deaths is “conservative”.

That number would have been far higher had it not been for a ‘modern-day Dunkirk’ rescue operation, with privately owned vessels of all sizes rescuing civilians from the shore, whilst coming under heavy fire from insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and machine guns.

The Dyck Advisory Group (DAG) has been assisting with helicopter attacks to keep the insurgents at bay, and pilots and bosses have witnessed harrowing scenes of violence and destruction.

The group’s six helicopters have picked up an estimated 200 expats thus far, with several South Africans saying they owe their lives to the group.

Speaking to News24, Colonel Lionel Dyck, DAG’s chief, described what he saw:

“A lot of food trucks had been ambushed, shot at, early in the morning by the insurgents, and [they] pulled the crew out of the trucks and beheaded them. They were lying on the ground.

“These terrorists engaged us with their guns, and we returned fire, but there were a lot of dead bodies around. They had been killing quite indiscriminately, a lot of people.”

….”When they were attacking and killing people in Palma, the only people who were available were us. We went up there to try and deal with the attacks on the streets. We went up on the day it started, and we have been up there ever since,” he explained.

However, that assistance may end this week, with Dyck saying the Mozambican government has chosen not to renew the DAG contract.

He said he was greatly concerned about what may happen once his choppers pull out, with the Mozambican government seemingly planning on replacing them with larger Russian-made Mi17 and Mi24 helicopters piloted by Mozambicans and Ukrainians.

That’s according to The Daily Maverick, but there’s worry there, too:

…these other aircraft do not seem ready for combat. Three of the Russian helicopters were reported to have joined battle briefly on Thursday, but then to have retreated after one was hit by AK-47 fire from the ground.

They apparently did not fly again and some expatriates who survived the attack expressed anger that the much larger Russian helicopters would have been able to airlift significantly higher numbers of people to safety than the small DAG Gazelle helicopters. The Mozambican pilots who will fly the Gazelles have apparently not yet completed their training.

One Armed Forces of Mozambique soldier spoke of his post of 35 soldiers being overwhelmed by hundreds of insurgents, coming from various parts of the city, according to Club of Mozambique:

Injured and without transport, they hid in the bush, where they survived until they were rescued by the army on Saturday, he said. They were taken to the facilities of the Total oil company in Afungi, from where they were transported to a hospital. One civilian died on the flight.

Another soldier speaking to Efe described the attack as “a massacre”, and that they had to rush out of a rapid intervention post, where they had recently received weapons and ammunition.

There have been calls for South Africa to send our national armed forces to assist, but according to analysts from South Africa-based Willshir & Associates, a terrorism risk and analysis company, they would be out of their depths.

Here’s The Mail & Guardian:

“The SANDF does not even have basic intelligence and surveillance information from Mozambique. The SANDF is also not equipped for guerrilla warfare on the level that the militants in Mozambique operate. One needs a force that can counter the insurgents with the same tactics and that takes considerable skills to develop,” the analysts said.

There are still said to be “random skirmishes” ongoing on the outskirts of Palma, as well as in neighbouring villages, and once DAG pulls out (or if, with some saying negotiations between the group and the Mozambican government are still ongoing), there are legitimate fears that attacks will increase.

Deputy director-general for public diplomacy, department of international relations and cooperation, Clayson Monyela, said that all the South Africans in Mozambique have been safely returned home, and the department is not aware of other missing South Africans in the country.

[sources:news24&dailymav&clubmozam&mg]