Three Rwandan soldiers killed in Mozambique ambush

An ambush in Mozambique killed three Rwandan soldiers over the weekend and wounded six, a Rwandan army spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Kigali said in 2021 that it would deploy roughly 1,000 members of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and the Rwanda National Police (RNP) to Mozambique, plagued by a long-running insurgency.

"It is true our soldiers in Mozambique were attacked in an ambush, in which three were killed," spokesperson Ronald Rwivanga said, referring to the May 3 incident in Cabo Delgado province.

"It is a combat zone and some of these incidences are expected, but the situation was handled," he said, adding that those wounded are "recovering well."

Repeated militant attacks

The gas-rich Cabo Delgado province has in recent months been the target of successive attacks by militants.

It is the latest uptick in clashes in an area blighted for years by militant insurgency that has killed thousands of people, uprooted over a million from their homes and forced the suspension of a giant gas exploration project by TotalEnergies.