Many more are still missing.
André is a foreign contractor who does not want his real name to be divulged for fear of repercussions. The memories of your three-day ordeal are etched in your mind.
He and his team worked on the huge complex run by the French oil company Total, a few kilometers north of Palma.
It was early afternoon and he had just taken a shower at Hotel Amarula when he heard the first shooting. The hotel is just one of the few in the area and popular with contractors.
Palma was under attack from three directions by Islamic militants known locally as Shabaab – or youth.
Shabaab conducted a brutal campaign in Cabo Delgado province, in the far north of Mozambique, for four years, but so far almost all of his attacks have been on villages, the province’s Christian population and security forces.
Things started to break down quickly as other foreigners who lived or were staying in Palma began to arrive at the hotel in search of shelter.
Shortly thereafter, militants destroyed a local cell tower and communications went down.
Desperate calls for help
Inside the hotel, guests and staff did what they could to avoid attracting insurgents to the hotel. All services, including food preparation, have been suspended and electricity has been cut to reduce noise.
“We spent the whole afternoon trying to get help,” said Andre. Some guests who had satellite phones called everyone who could. But with the local military quickly outnumbered and no help materializing from the Total complex, dozens of foreigners and Mozambicans began to crouch – and praying that they would survive the night.
“We spent the night under heavy fire,” he recalls.
Audio and video obtained by CNN from someone at the hotel speak of a scary scene, with strong bursts of gunfire dividing the night.
The next morning, the first helicopters began to hover over Palma, some firing at insurgents and others gathering some to safety.
The helicopters belonged to a South African military contractor, the Dyck Advisory Group (DAG).
“Some DAG helicopters came and attacked positions of the insurgents, who were close to the hotel,” said Andre.
DAG CEO Lionel Dyck told CNN in an interview on Tuesday that his men learned of people hiding at the hotel as they “flew around Palma looking for terrorists”.
“In the afternoon, one of my pilots landed at the hotel inside the enclosure and said he would take people outside,” said Dyck.
“A helicopter made four trips, rescuing six people per trip, 24 in total,” says Andre. “We select people with disabilities, diseases, the elderly, and we put them first.”
But dozens were left behind – under siege.
Andre, who is in his fifties, 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 2:30 pm, at 3:30 pm, we realized that they would not be returning,” he says. “We kept calling, but on the other side we were told that the helicopters had left to refuel.”
‘Bullets flying above’
In his interview with CNN, Dyck explained that daylight was the main problem. “[My pilot] took out 20 or 22 people, “he said.” So it got really dark and we had to leave. “
Dyck said his crews were still conducting their flights to Palma and rescuing civilians almost a week after the insurgents arrived.
Andre faced another night without knowing if the terrorists would invade the hotel.
“All this time, bullets flew overhead, hitting trees, we could hear explosions nearby, the panic was real,” he says. “It was even more chaotic when we realized that we would have to spend another night at the hotel.”
The food was running out and there was no sign of the Mozambican army or police.
“We try to get help at any cost, each of us calling his contacts, whoever they are, but on the other end of the line, everyone was unavailable to help,” says André. “It was horrible.
“We hear his cries from Allah-Akbar (” God is great “in Arabic) all night. All night,” he says. “But we made it through; and the next morning, everyone was alive.”
He still does not understand why the insurgents did not attack the hotel.
“We were not killed because they did not want to kill us,” he says – and wonders whether the insurgents have been ordered to contain themselves. “They were inside the hotel, they could have shot us if they wanted to,” he says.
A terrifying escape
On Friday morning, Andre and the remaining guests began to think of ways to escape. “We debated whether we should stand still, waiting for them to attack and kill us like lambs or whether we should flee.
“At about 11 am, the helicopters returned and we thought the evacuation would resume, but we realized that the helicopters had returned to carry out more attacks,” said André.
“We realized that 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 drove the train”, explained André. “Immediately behind that car was me.”
Andre prepared his pick-up. About 25 people huddled in it, some clinging to the top of the vehicle.
In the middle of the afternoon, the convoy ran to safety, heading north towards Tanzania.
“There was no immediate fire when we left the hotel, I think they were taken by surprise, they did not expect us to leave in these conditions.”
But minutes later, the convoy fell into an ambush.
“The shooting started when we entered the dirt road,” said Andre. “A kilometer later, I felt gusts brushing the top of the pick-up, luckily they didn’t hit me.
“Another 500 meters and the armored car is hit by a bazooka. He swayed a little, but managed to continue, ”adds André.
Then he was hit – a bullet penetrated the car door and hit his leg.
“There was blood everywhere,” he says, his voice shaking. “I asked the person next to me to hold the steering wheel and still managed to drive three kilometers with just one leg.”
Along the way, they saw corpses in the middle of the road. “I didn’t count them, but there were too many.”
‘My leg was destroyed’
Andre and the rest of the convoy drove north until they reached a fishing village near the border with Tanzania, stopping only when Andre almost passed out due to blood loss.
“My leg was destroyed,” he says.
It was only when they reached the beach that the group realized that many of the vehicles had not arrived.
“Of the 15 cars, only eight made it to the beach. The others were left behind,” explained André.
Many of the train’s occupants are still missing – a week later.
The Mozambican Defense and Security Forces (SDS) in response to the attacks said they regret the death of “a group of citizens who rushed to a convoy of vehicles to leave the hotel”.
Dyck says they told the people who were staying at the hotel that they would be there the next morning, but the occupants decided to run out.
“They decided not to wait – maybe they had better information, but we knew that the terrorists were outside and we had shot several of them and they were attacking us from outside.”
The group was eventually rescued by small boats that took them south to Afungi – and Andre was later flown to a hospital in South Africa.
He faces more surgery and a long rehabilitation. Despite his ordeal, André plans to return to Mozambique.
“Mozambique is a beautiful country. The problem, as in many other places on the globe, is everything else.”