the new frontline in the spread of the islamic state group. in the morning, greg always gave me a morning call. at home in south africa, mum meryl kept in daily contact with her two sons and their dad, who were working in mozambique. i think they all just loved the life in mozambique — beautiful people and beautiful beaches. i love you, bro. love you, my man. that morning, her sons wesley and adrian were at the building site with their dad, greg.

we build camps all over africa. we're contractors. we'd been working in mozambique for a long time, so we had a big mozambican workforce. jorge was also in parma that day. like many mozambicans, he had come to the town looking for work. located in northern mozambique, parma was booming because of a $20 billion gas project being built by french energy giant total. works had been suspended amid concerns it could be the target of islamist militants. but that very morning, total announced it was starting up again, after the after the government

promised extra security in the area. in the fields nearby, local residents were working their small farms. muanassa was among them, with her large family, including granddaughter ancha. that morning, greg sent me two pictures of the clouds over parma that day and the clouds over pemba. i thought "that looks

a bit ominous". we were all working normally and one of our guys got a phone call that stuff was happening and could not say much but that they are attacking parma. wesley began to film on his phone. gunfire. once it started, itjust didn't stop. go, go, go, go, go! go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!

19—year—old ancha was heavily pregnant.

ancha and her grandmother escaped to hide in the bush with thousands of others. wesley, his dad and brother were also hunting safety. get in! toot, toot! we turned around and we stopped at the amarula hotel. and a whole lot of people just started streaming in. the amarula was known as a local haunt for white foreign workers. with security gates and a helipad, people flocked here in search of safety. as the attackers swept through town, they targeted key sites like banks,

food shops and phone masts. i tried to get hold of all of them on their cellphones, nobody was answering, and i started to panic. eventually at about nine o'clock that night, greg phoned me from a satellite phone and said that we're safe, they're in the amarula, they're going to get evacuated. they were underfire from more than 100 militants, known locally as al—shabaab, who are affiliated with isis. an islamist insurgency had been spreading across the impoverished cabo delgado region since 2017. what began with small, scattered hits had grown into bigger, more organised and brutal assaults affecting many districts. this is the first major attack impacting foreign workers.

distant gunfire. around 200 workers and locals had now sought refuge at the amarula. we were inside the hotel, upstairs at — where the restaurant and the bar is. gunfire. we started getting shot at. they were shooting at us over the wall, so we all were lying on the floor and just keeping our heads down. gunfire. we did not have one military guy there. we had no weapons. it wasjust us, with our hands, sitting there. so now you — what's going through your head? "0k, these people are coming, and what? "am i going to be killed like an animal? "is my head going to be cut off? "are my arms and my body going to be cut in pieces?" as they advanced towards the hotel, the insurgents had been

inflicting their trademark act of violence — beheadings. outside, the military were struggling to contain them. 400km away, dag, a controversial private security firm working for the mozambican police, was alerted to the attacks. leading the operation was seasoned former colonel lionel dyck. the initial thing, from the sky, there were bodies lying next to trucks — they'd decapitated some truck drivers. there were a lot of bodies lying around. 0n the ground, people trapped in by the attackers tried to signal to the helicopters. people come running out, waving something. you can't leave people like that alone. gunfire. whenever dag had choppers above us, that was a big sense of relief. gunfire.

we thought "0k, we are going to get rescued". and that's when they did the four loads of evacuating people. and the one chopper got shot twice. but even after the chopper being shot, they still came back.

dag rescued more than 20 people from the amarula, but their small helicopters could only take a few passengers at a time. those trapped on the ground believed more help was coming. so we wait, we wait, we wait, we wait. but help never came. and dag, struggling forfuel supplies, say they had to leave. we were just left there. no—one sent help. no—one did nothing. we got two—way radios. we managed to speak to the total security control room in afungi. you know what total security control room's last words about us was? "i am receiving 80—plus phone calls per day from those guys' families." "i can do nothing. "it's time they accept it is what it is.

"there's nothing we can do for them." total�*s control room was just 10km away, at the gas project. the government had just agreed to provide a 25km security zone around the site. this should have included palma. but whilst the town was under siege, the gas project itself was never breached. dag claims that total refused to share fuel, and the military refused to share larger helicopters, hampering their rescue missions. distant gunfire. those inside the amarula had now found a weapon and hatched a plan. so, we knew that by friday night, we won't survive another night there and they were going to get in. and if they got in, we would be slaughtered.

we've got the vehicles there. if the choppers aren't going to be able to evacuate us, then we need to try and make a run for it before nightfall. we took a list of all of the people, their names, and worked out how many vehicles we needed and we started to load. we put all the women and children in armoured vehicles. and the rest of us were all in unarmoured vehicles. i have a wife and three children — that was my motivation. to get in a car and to try to drive and drive to a place, that we do not know if the road is open. will we get killed or not? but if we stay here, we will die. my brother had said to us at that stage that he thinks this is a bad idea. "we've got a weapon.

"maybe we should stay?" and, um, isaid, "let'sjust go". in a forest on the edge of town, ancha and herfamily were also planning an escape. before they left, muanassa went back to check on their home. they, and thousands of others, headed for the shore to flee by boat. with little food or water, the 400km journey was a huge risk.

ancha went into labour in the middle of the sea. back at the amarula, the convoy was preparing to leave. low on fuel and losing daylight, dag says they were unable to give the cars air cover. we just went as fast as we could.

about 2—3km out on that road to tanzania, we got hit by the first ambush. the guy that was driving, they shot his glasses off his head — that's how close the bullet was to killing him. probably about, uh, 5km further, we got hit by another ambush. my brother, he got hit. he just was shouting, "i'm hit. "i can't drive. "somebody else needs to take over." and i was just shouting to him "i love you!"

we pushed him to the back, where my dad was holding him and holding his wounds to stop the blood. and i started to drive and i was just shouting back, "use another pack!" "put it in him — put it in the wound!" just before the quarry was — were all the dump trucks that had been ambushed three days before. they had placed the bodies across the road. so we had to drive over the bodies to carry on going. by saturday morning, we hadn't heard anything. and, uh... my manager, he phoned me with the news. he started off with saying, "wes and greg are safe, but adrian didn't make it..." sniffles.

so, i said goodbye to him and thank you for saving all of our lives. we then left him in the car and we ran into the bush. and then we hid in that bush and thick undergrowth for two days. four days after the attacks began, wesley and greg were finally rescued by lionel�*s pilots. they landed a small plane next to my brother and ijust held his hand the whole flight back. 17 vehicles left the amarula. it's estimated six didn't make it. jorge and tobias made it to the shore and were evacuated by boat.

jorge is now back home, with no work. he says he would go back to palma if morejobs come up. but the town is almost deserted, and total has suspended this project indefinitely. many believe the company has questions to answer about what happened. my personal opinion is total do not value human life. i do not think they should have the right to operate in mozambique. because as far as i know, i grew up, a human life is worth more than anything. worth more than anything. just imagine if i died on that road, do you think total would have taken care of my family? would they provide for my children? if they are not doing that, why should they have the right to take any mineral from this country?

but there are also serious questions for the government about whether a lack of military strategy cost many citizens their lives. mozambique has now agreed to accept troops from its allies in southern africa, before the jihadism spreads. why was nothing done beforehand? this isn't going to come to an end, and it's just creeping further and further down the coast. before we know it, we're going to see it right here on our doorstep. the mozambican military did not provide a response to the bbc. total told the bbc that...

ancha and herfamily survived the crossing and reached the port of pemba. she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. ancha's husband is still missing.

now, they are just two of thousands stuck in temporary camps. while the foreign contractors may have gone home, for many mozambicans, this crisis is their everyday reality. nearly 3,000 people are thought to have been killed and 700,000 displaced by insurgent attacks in mozambique since 2017. ancha named her baby after the boat that rescued them — �*esperanza' — it means hope.

good evening. between the showers we had a little sunshine through the day, perceptions of the summer weather so far range in wet weather till it has been 0k to we need more rain and that applies to parts of scotland which is saying please can help us conserve water. a large part of the changing was in the barn. that is below average rainfall. that is tempered by the fact that they were so wet so impacts and widespread from the drier than average month but with the exception of western scotland when they was also drier than average. in the blue, much of south—east england as a wet wash out with double the average rainfall and there was a bit more rain around

over the weekend but although the field say some of the sky doesn't say that so much and that is more rain to come. more to come from this area of low pressure pushing over the south of the uk on monday. in scotland there will be some outbreaks of rain across the western part owned through the day with a good deal of the cloud is also rain in parts of northern england but much of northern england, the rest of england and wales will get to see some sunny spells with the chance of a shower before the rain bears down from south—west from that what next weather system for they were meant and he is notjust wet on this, also very windy, particularly on the flank of the system to the channel. channel islands south of england macy's and destructive gusts of wind approaching 60 mph to trees in full leaf. even parts of east anglia in the far south—east of england see trees speaking gusts in excess of 60 mph as they ease later. still some areas of rain affecting for example parts of northern england, eastern scotland, some rain to tour the

north west of scotland, if you showers to be found elsewhere and gradually turning a bit brighter towards the end of the day and away from the centre this low pressure system will be beginning to pull away northwards and weaken as we go on into wednesday. still close enough to scotland to give some perhaps useful rain in places here, sunny spells elsewhere and then the showers get going again and then some of these could get heavy infantry. we are looking at high teens in a few spots, low 20s on wednesday. second half of the week low pressure is beginning to building but is still quite complicated because higher up in the and there is a disturbance then and still means although this is not high pressure that it is going to be settles on here for thursday and still shows that pop up fairly hit and miss and will stay dry, one shower will not make for a wash—out of the day and only last a couple of minutes but the potential for showers as they're both on thursday and a couple of minutes but the potential for showers as they're both on thursday and indeed going into friday even though you see this

big area of low pressure right on top of us. they will also be some big sunny spells and is the winscombe to the close the window lights it will be quite pleasant so this temperatures to just what the mid teens are more places by friday getting into the low 20s. if you're not a fan of extreme summer heat this week is among another one for you. temperature isjust close this week is among another one for you. temperature is just close to the average but on the one side in scotland where the cells where they will dip below average for the time of yearfor a time will dip below average for the time of year for a time before things start to recover more widely into next week. looking into the next week. lower chance we will see an area of low pressure coming toward south—east england so it is not nailed on but gives you an idea that there is still something to play for in the details for next week.