Army, police flee Islamic terrorists in Mozambique

Mozambican military and police fled Macomia district after extremist Islamist militants launched a violent attack on Thursday, an online publication AFP reported on Friday morning.

According to reports the militants descend on Macomia forcing thousands of residents to flee the area while the army and the police withdrew from the battle from and his in the bushes.

The paper quoted a security officer who said, "We can't defeat them. They're very strong. We have been hiding in the bushes since dawn."

The government had to summon the contract killers led by former Zimbabwean army Commander Lionel Dyk to leave the City of  and bring reinforcement helicopters to repel the attackers.

Dyk runs a mercenary company, Dyk Advisory Group, based in South Africa which according to its website claims it has undertaken "security-based operations" in at least eight countries, including the Central African Republic, Malawi and South Africa.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is said to be close to Dyck, who caught his eye back in 1981. That was when he led a battalion of the mainly black Rhodesian African Rifles in suppressing a mutiny of disgruntled ex-guerrillas loyal to the late President  Robert Mugabe's bitter rival, Joshua Nkomo, leaving more than 20 000 people of Midlands and Matabeleland dead.

Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), affiliated with the Islamic State group, has claimed some of the attacks in the region since last June posting images of slain soldiers and seized weapons.