JOHANNESBURG (Sunatimes) - Mozambican police arrested 45 Somali refugees en route to South Africa after they escaped from a refugee camp in the north of the country, independent media reported on Friday.

The 45 were apprehended on Tuesday as they tried to flee from the Maratane refugee camp in northern province Nampula, provincial police spokesman Inacio Dina told O Pais newspaper.

It was suspected they were trying to get to South Africa, the newspaper reported.

Mozambican police regularly arrest illegal immigrants who enter the country from the north, some en route to South Africa. Refugee camps in that region currently house around 7,700 refugees, most from Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Nine people drowned and 40 were still missing after a boat carrying 82 illegal Somali immigrants sank off the coast of northern province Cabo Delgado last Monday.

Mozambican police also arrested 618 illegal immigrants in the past week, among them was a group of 15 illegal Pakistani immigrants, in the capital, Maputo.

South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper recently reported that predominantly Pakistani and Somali militants were running terrorist training camps in Mozambique's remote northern provinces of Nampula and Tete. These groups planned to infiltrate and attack South Africa during the FIFA World Cup due to start on Friday, the paper reported.

Mozambican president Armando Guebuza later denied the existence of such camps.

South Africa's National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure also rejected the report.

Source: SAPA news agency, Johannesburg