There are many more.
Andre is a foreign contractor who does not want his real name to be disclosed for fear of repercussions. The memories of his three-day ordeal are etched in his head.
He and his team worked in the huge complex of the French oil company Total, a few kilometers north of Palma.
It was early afternoon and he had just finished showering at the Amarula Hotel when he first heard gunfire. The hotel is just one of the few in the area and popular with contractors.
Palma was attacked from three directions by Islamist militants known locally as Shabaab – or the youth.
Shabaab has waged a brutal campaign in Mozambique’s northernmost province, Cabo Delgado, for four years, but so far almost all attacks have targeted villages, the province’s Christian population and security forces.
Things quickly began to unravel when other foreigners living or staying in Palma started arriving at the hotel in search of shelter.
Soon after, the militants destroyed a local cell tower and communications fell.
Desperate calls for help
At the hotel, guests and staff did what they could to prevent the insurgents from being drawn to the hotel. All services, including food preparation, were suspended and electricity was cut to reduce noise.
“We’ve been trying to get help all afternoon,” says Andre. Some of the guys who had satellite phones called anyone they could. But when the local army was quickly overrun and no help from the Total complex, dozens of foreigners and Mozambicans began to settle – praying that they would survive the night.
“We spent the night under intense fire,” he recalls.
Audio and video obtained by CNN from someone at the hotel recount a terrifying scene, with loud bursts of gunfire cutting through the night.
The next morning, the first helicopters began hovering over Palma, some firing at insurgents and others picking a few to safety.
The helicopters were from a South African military contractor, the Dyck Advisory Group (DAG).
“Some DAG helicopters came and attacked insurgent positions close to the hotel,” said Andre.
DAG CEO Lionel Dyck told CNN in an interview on Tuesday that his men became aware of people hiding in the hotel as they “flew through Palma in search of terrorists.”
“One of my pilots landed at the hotel on the property in the afternoon and said he was going to take people,” Dyck said.
“A helicopter made four trips, rescuing six people per trip, 24 in total,” says Andre. “We selected people with disabilities, illness, the oldest, and let them go first.”
But dozens were left – under siege.
Andre, in his 50s, was one of the next group of six to be rescued. But he says the DAG helicopters did not return that day.
“The last helicopter left at 2.30pm, at 3.30pm we realized they wouldn’t be back,” he says. “We kept calling, but then again we were told the helicopters had left to refuel.”
‘Bullets flying overhead’
In his interview with CNN, Dyck explained that daylight was the main problem.[My pilot] “He took out twenty or 22 people,” he said. “It was too dark then and we had to leave.”
Dyck says his crews were still running their flights to Palma, rescuing civilians nearly a week after the insurgents first arrived.
Andre faced another night without knowing if the terrorists would flood the hotel.
“All this time bullets were flying over us and hitting trees, we could hear explosions nearby, there was real panic,” he says. “It was even more chaotic when we realized we had to spend another night in the hotel.”
Food was running out and there was no sign of the Mozambican army or police.
“We tried to get help at all costs, each of us called his or her contacts, whoever they might be, but everyone on the other end of the line was not available to help,” says Andre. “It was horrible.
“We heard their shouts from Allah-Akbar (“ God is great ”in Arabic) all night. All night,” he says. ‘But we got through it; and the next morning everyone was alive. ‘
He still doesn’t understand why the insurgents didn’t attack the hotel.
“We weren’t killed because they didn’t want to kill us,” he says – wondering if the insurgents were told to hold back. “They were at the hotel, they could have shot us if they wanted to,” he says.
A terrifying escape
Early Friday, Andre and the remaining guests began to think of ways to escape. “We debated whether we should stand still, waiting for them to attack us and slaughter us like lambs, or whether we should flee from them.
“The helicopters returned around 11am and we thought the evacuation would resume, but we thought the helicopters had returned to carry out more attacks,” said Andre.
“We realized we couldn’t stay there.”
A convoy of 17 vehicles was assembled.
“The first car in the column was an armored vehicle and in that car we put all the women and children and it was the car that led the convoy,” Andre explained. “I was immediately behind that car.”
Andre prepared his pick-up. About 25 people crammed in, some clinging to the top of the vehicle.
In the mid-afternoon, the convoy made a safety flight north to Tanzania.
“There was no immediate fire when we left the hotel, I think they were surprised, they did not expect us to leave under those circumstances.”
But minutes later, the convoy was ambushed.
“The gunfire started when we got to the dirt road,” says Andre. “A kilometer later I felt eruptions grazing along the top of the pick-up, luckily they didn’t hit me.
“Another 500 meters and the armored car is hit by a bazooka. It wobbled a little but still managed to keep going,” adds Andre.
Then he was hit – a bullet entered the car door and hit his leg.
“There was blood everywhere,” he says in a trembling voice. “I asked the person next to me to hold the wheel and I managed to drive another three kilometers with one leg.”
On the way they saw corpses in the middle of the road. “I didn’t count them, but there were many.”
‘My leg has been destroyed’
Andre and the rest of the convoy headed north until they reached a fishing village near the Tanzanian border, where they only stopped when Andre nearly passed out from the loss of blood.
“My leg has been destroyed,” he says.
It wasn’t until they reached the beach that the group realized that many of the vehicles had failed.
“Of the 15 cars, only eight made it to the beach. The others fell behind”, Andre explained.
Many of the convoy’s occupants are still missing – a week later.
Mozambican Defense and Security Forces (FDS) said in response to the attacks that they regretted the death of “a group of civilians who rushed in a vehicle convoy to leave the hotel”.
Dyck says they told the people hiding at the hotel that they would be there the next morning, but the residents decided to put a stop to it.
“They decided not to wait – maybe they had better information, but we knew the terrorists were outside and we had shot at some of them and they spoke to us from the outside.”
The group was eventually picked up by small boats, which took them south to Afungi – and Andre was later taken by airlift to a hospital in South Africa.
He stands for more operations and a long rehabilitation. Despite his ordeal, Andre plans to return to Mozambique.
“Mozambique is a beautiful country. The problem, like many other places in the world, is everything else.”