Armed men, believed to be from the self-styled “Renamo Military Junta” killed a Mozambican woman and injured a Zimbabwean driver in an ambush yesterday morning on the main road from Beira to the Zimbabwe border.

The ambush took place in the Nharichonga area, Nhamatanda district, in the central province of Sofala, when a bus and three long-distance trucks came under fire.

The woman who lost her life was a passenger in the bus. The injured Zimbabwean was driving one of the trucks and is now receiving medical care at Nhamatanda Rural Hospital.

The vehicles were extensively damaged and one of the trucks was completely destroyed after the attackers looted it before setting it on fire.

Speaking from his hospital bed, the truck driver Moses Chingizi said: “I left Nhamatanda at 5am, and when I reached here I heard the first shot, which was against one of my front tyres. The truck began to swerve, and I heard two other shots which hit the cabin.

“I was hit by three bullets in my arm and legs. I heard shots and I tried to accelerate my truck. I felt that I had been hit. I lost control, but I managed to bring the truck to a halt. I then ran into the bush and from where I was I saw them attack two other trucks and a bus. By that time, the front of my truck was on fire. They took all my goods and left.” From the bush, Chingizi saw the attackers, wearing uniform and brandishing guns. Shortly afterwards the police arrived and began to fire.

“It was then that I came out of the bush and I showed myself to the police and they took me to the hospital,” he said.

Clinical director of Nhamatanda Hospital, Miquitaio Torres, said despite multiple gunshot wounds, Chingizi was out of danger. He also confirmed that a woman aged about 50 had died in the attack. This was the fourth ambush against civilian vehicles in Sofala in the space of a week. — AIM.