Maputo — The Mozambican police claim to have dismantled a base of the terrorists operating in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, and to have cut their chain of supply.

Interviewed by the Maputo daily "Noticias", the director of operations in the General Command of the police, Victor Novela, said that, during what he described as a successful operation against the islamist terrorists, the defence and security forces neutralised a group in the region of Cagembe, that was carrying 50 machetes to strengthen the enemy arsenal.

Meanwhile, in the central city of Beira, ten Pakistanis, who tried to pass themselves off as fishermen, have been charged with conspiracy, presumably in connection with the terrorist operations in Cabo Delgado.

Five days later, the crew of another Mozambican fishing boat said they had seen the Pakistanis' vessel (which is visually quite distinctive) not adrift at all, but near the boundary between Zambezia and Nampula provinces and sailing northwards, towards Cabo Delgado.

These witnesses have led the police to suspect that the Pakistanis are not fishermen at all but are collaborating with the islamist terrorists in Cabo Delgado.