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| - International media and rights groups on Friday expressed concern over the disappearance of a Mozambique journalist in the country's jihadist-hit north more than a week ago. Community radio journalist Ibraimo Abu Mbaruco disappeared on April 7, in the district of Palma, a zone in the epicentre of the attacks by Islamist militants seeking to establish a caliphate. The government has not commented on the missing journalist. "The silence coming from the highest authorities is extremely worrying and we fear that he could suffer the same fate as other journalists, who were held incommunicado for months last year for covering the violence in northern Mozambique," said Reporters Without Borders (RSF)'s Arnaud Froger. He warned that "turning this violence-torn province into a black hole for news and information will not help to end the insurrection." Human Rights Watch's director for southern Africa, Dewa Mavhinga said the reporter's "apparent forced disappearance is of grave concern, particularly given the Mozambican security forces' alarming record of wrongfully detaining journalists". "The Mozambican government should urgently take all necessary steps to locate Mbaruco and ensure his safe release." The Media Institute for Southern Africa in Mozambique has accused the army of abducting the journalist. "It was, in fact, the members of Mozambican army that took the journalist," said MISA citing a police officer in Palma. "He was taken from Palma to Mueda, where the army has an interrogation room." In a letter handed to the presidency on Friday, a group of Mozambican editors, reporters and activists called on President Filipe Nyusi to "order the immediate release" of the journalist. Since the beginning of military attacks in the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province in 2017, at least five journalists including Mbaruco and activists working for Amnesty International have been arrested by government troops. str-mgu/sn/pma
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