Mozambique Targeted by Terrorists

By Henry Srebrnik, [Moncton, NB] Times & Transcript

When you think about Islamic State terrorism, Mozambique isn’t a country that comes to mind. After all, it is in southern Africa, far from the Middle East.

Still, its location on the Indian Ocean, and the influence of Muslim traders, led to conversions to Islam over the decades. Today, about one-fifth of the country’s 30 million people are Muslim, and they predominate in the northern provinces. The rest of the country is mainly Christian.

This has led to attempts by militants to seize control of these areas. The region is far from Mozambique’s main central city of Beira and the capital, Maputo, in the far south.

Attacks began in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado in 2017 and have rapidly gathered pace this year with insurgents seizing key towns for brief periods and increasingly hitting military or strategic targets.

That came after the group, known as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama, pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) last year, calling themselves an affiliate of its Central Africa Province. IS subsequently began claiming the local group’s attacks.

At least twice they have been spotted flying the black and white Islamic State flag and they have publicly declared their intention to turn Mozambique into a “caliphate.” Many are from the Kimwani people, who have suffered economic and social marginalization.

In 2010 a huge gas field was discovered off the coast. Overnight Mozambique became home to the fourth largest gas reserves in the world -- and became a target of Islamic insurgents.

The government hopes to reap as much as $100 billion in revenue over the next quarter-century from the projects being developed by French, American, Italian and other energy firms -- more than six times the current annual gross domestic product. Mozambique is still struggling to emerge from a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992 and badly needs the income.

In late March, insurgents captured the strategic and heavily-defended port in the far northern Mozambique town of Mocimboa da Praia. Two days later, they seized another important town, Quissanga.

It was one of several attacks on the port, 60 kilometres south of the projects It is used for cargo deliveries to the developments.

Rebel groups have also occupied villages more than 100 kilometres from the coastal capital, Pemba, before leaving under Mozambican Defence and Security Forces fire.

On Aug. 12, Islamic State claimed via its media channels to have taken over two military bases in the vicinity of Mocimboa da Praia, resulting in the deaths of a number of Mozambique soldiers and the capture of weaponry ranging from machine guns to rocket-propelled grenades.

Insurgents sank one of the French-made HSI32 interceptor boats Mozambique bought from the Abu Dhabi-based shipbuilder group Privinvest in the latest attack on the port.

The UN, in coordination with the Mozambican government, in early June requested US$35 million for a Rapid Response Plan for Cabo Delgado. Tanzania has also said it will launch an offensive against the jihadists in forests along the border with Mozambique.

The Brazilian-born Catholic bishop of Pemba on July 21 stated that the Cabo Delgado armed attacks have caused a humanitarian crisis affecting more than 700,000 people, almost one-third of the province’s population.

“The world still has no idea what is happening, because of indifference, and because it seems that we have already become accustomed to wars,” Bishop Luíz Fernando Lisboa said.

More than 1,500 people have died and another 250,000 have been displaced since the violence began. Several sub-contractors on the gas projects have been killed while outside the perimeter of their sites.

But the upsurge in brutal violence in northern Mozambique, including the beheadings of women and children, has now sounded alarms in the region.

Observers say the evolution of the insurgency in Mozambique is remarkably similar to Boko Haram’s emergence in northern Nigeria, with a marginalised group exploiting local grievances, terrorising many communities, but also offering an alternative path for unemployed youths frustrated by a corrupt, neglectful and heavy-handed state.

Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi has called these “heinous crimes,” but the solution to the conflict lies in good governance, and an attempt to address deep-seated economic and social grievances, including a share of any future gas revenues for those living in the region.