New jihadist attack in troubled N. Mozambican province

Jihadists on Tuesday attacked a village close to a huge gas project in northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, in the latest assault by the shadowy group, sources said.

Armed men attacked the small village of Monjane, they said.

"The population fled to the resettlement village of Senga," which lies five kilometres (three miles) away in the project zone, a security source told AFP.

The source was unable to give details about any casualties.

The group, known locally as Al-Shabab, launched attacks in the predominantly Muslim province in October 2017. Last year, it declared allegiance to the so-called Islamic State group.

More than 2,300 people have died, according to the US-based NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project, while the government says at least 500,000 people have fled their homes.

Cabo Delgado is the site of a scheme to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant -- the centrepiece of a government dream to reap riches from Mozambique's offshore energy fields.

The French company Total, a major investor in the scheme, told AFP it was "closely monitoring the situation" in Cabo Delgado but did not confirm the attack.

Monjane was attacked in May 2018. Ten people were beheaded, some of them children.

Mozambique's armed forces, which have been struggling to contain the insurgency, last week said they had carried out several operations in which they killed 37 jihadists, seized firearms and destroyed vehicles and boats used for coastal attacks.