Vehicles under escort attacked in Mozambique

The Mozambique route is an economic lifeline of Malawi with 80 percent of goods passing through that country, but attacks on vehicles to and from Mozambique, even under military escort, indicate that the situation could be dire.

For instance, a daring ambush by the militia in Mozambique around midday on Monday on a convoy of about 200 trucks under Mozambique military escort, forced two tankers belonging to a local transporter to return home.

One driver, Lawrence Kamanula, who nearly plunged a tanker between Tete and a trading centre called Guzamento Makoccosa following the ambush, escaped with minor injuries after a bullet smashed his left view mirror, found its way into the driver’s cabin and missed his face by a whisker.

The bullet finally smashed the rear window on the driver’s side before it pricked onto the other view mirror, right, on its way out, making the driver  to momentarily lose control of the tanker, but later continued cruising at 80 to 100 kilometres per hour.

Still driving, and the trucks almost ramming into each other as everyone was disturbed with loud sounds from the firing, Kamanula noticed blood oozing from the right upper eyelid and he soon received a phone call from a colleague, driving just ahead of him who inquired if everything was alright.

“My friend, I have been shot in the eye,” he told him as they continued driving, with the Mozambique military leading the convoy and other officers trailing it.

Kamanula said: “After we drove for about two to three kilometres, we arrived at Guzamento Makoccosa and the whole convoy, led by Mozambique military, stopped to assess the damages.

“This is where I discovered I was not shot in the eye, but I got injured by pieces of glass that split all over into the cabin from the rear window on my side, razed by the bullet.”

He disclosed that at the time of the shooting, the rear window on the left hand side was open.

He explained that he did not notice any reaction of the Mozambique military after the shooting because the convoys are always long, and the military team that trails them could at times drive at a distance and catches up with them later.

Kamanula said he received first aid treatment on the spot and later telephoned his office in Blantyre to inform them of the incident.

He said his boss instructed him and his colleague to return if they felt their security was not guaranteed, and considering that they were yet to pass through more danger spots ahead and this was happening while on military escort, they decided to turn back.

A trip to Beira to load cooking oil for a local company in Malawi was abandoned here, inflicting economic loss on the transporter, the company that was importing the cooking oil and personal benefits in allowances for the drivers and their assistants.

On a larger picture, it is the national economy that would bleed as Malawi’s imports and exports of about 80 percent pass through Beira, Mozambique’s biggest route to the Indian Ocean.

Kamanula said they waited for another military escort back to Tete, and from Tete to Mwanza border they travelled on their own—arriving at the border at around 8pm, same Monday. They slept at Mwanza and proceeded to Blantyre the following day.

“I praise the Lord. We were just hearing about it happening to our friends, but here it came, becoming a victim. I could have died, but I saw the hand of God saving me. When my tanker was shot at, it was never in my hands, God saved us,” the driver, a Seventh Day Adventist faithful, said.

He is deemed lucky that he came back alive as some Malawians, who were also ambushed in Mozambique, came back in body bags.

The local transporter, whose two tankers were attacked on Monday, said the other vehicle was shot on the windscreen but the driver managed to escape the scene, but said he was not comfortable to comment much on the matter as it bordered on national security of another country, which can best be dealt with by government.

Minister of Transport and Public Works Malison Ndau in an interview on Tuesday when asked to comment on growing concerns by the local transporters, said his ministry was preparing to issue a press statement and could not say much until the statement is issued. n