AFP :
More than 180 people including expatriate workers are trapped inside a hotel in a northern Mozambique town under siege by insurgents for three days, workers and security sources said Friday. Several people were reportedly dead, according to witnesses and a rights group, after the attack in Palma near a liquified natural gas site in Cabo Delgado province. French oil giant Total is the principal investor in the $20 billion (16.9 billion euros) project — Africa’s largest — with six other international firms including ExxonMobil involved in the area.
Jihadist militants began a raid on the coastal town on Wednesday afternoon, forcing terrified residents to flee into surrounding forest as LNG and government workers sought shelter at the Amarula Palma hotel. “Almost the entire town was destroyed. Many people are dead,” said a worker on the LNG site speaking on the phone Friday evening after he was evacuated to Afungi. He did not give details of the casualties nor their nationalities.”As locals fled to the bush, workers from LNG companies, including foreigners, took refuge in hotel Amarula where they are waiting to be rescued,” he said, asking not to be named.
