The French company “Total” evacuated about a thousand of its employees from the coastal town of Palma in Mozambique, which is besieged by the militants.
Mozambican Foreign Minister Armendo Njunga said, “The ship that evacuated them arrived in the coastal city of Pemba on Sunday morning.”
About 100 armed men from a group known as “Al-Shabab” and “Al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa”, linked to the terrorist organization “ISIS”, launched an attack on the gas-rich city of Palma in Cabo Delgado province last Wednesday.
Palma is located in an area where Total is leading a $ 20 billion foreign investment project near its LNG plant on the Avongi peninsula.
The project was halted in January due to security tensions and the escalation of the insurgency.
The Mozambican government confirmed the attack on the city, and said that its soldiers had embarked on a military operation to drive the militants out of the town.
Source: “dpa”