Terror. Since Saturday, the far north of Mozambique has shifted. The port city of Palma fell into the hands of a jihadist group known as Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, or “Al-Shebab” (meaning “young people” in Arabic). It has been three years since this jihadist guerrilla put pressure on this border region with Tanzania with a rise in power. Since August 2020, it has already controlled the strategic port of Mocimboa da Praia, crucial for the arrival of the equipment necessary for gas installations and which has never been taken over by the Mozambican military despite several attempts, these jihadists are now masters of ‘a good part of the coastal area.
On Wednesday, the armed groups launched a major attack on Palma, simultaneously on three fronts, the same day Total announced the resumption of work on the gas exploitation site, supposed to be operational in 2024. The city fell into their hands Saturday, after three days of fighting. The number of casualties among civilians and combatants remains unknown. The Mozambican government confirmed on Sunday evening that at least seven people were killed in an ambush on Friday, trying to escape from a hotel where they had taken refuge. And “dozens” more in the initial attack on Wednesday. Witnesses told the NGO Human Rights Watch that they fired “all over the place at people and buildings”, leaving a trail of bodies in the streets.
An uncertain balance sheet, thousands of residents on the run
The emergency is everywhere and this Monday, March 29, several UN agencies met in the morning to coordinate their efforts and organize the transport to safe areas of thousands of civilians who fled the city to take refuge in the forests and surrounding beaches. But also, en masse, to the gas site managed by Total. According to a source participating in the evacuation operations, there would be between 6,000 and 10,000 people taking refuge inside the site or asking to be, a situation complicated to manage, especially since the construction work of the site. gas company, supposed to be operational in 2024, have been stopped for several months. So few staff present and probably few resources to manage such a large presence.
A ferry, the Sea Star 1, left the site on Saturday with some 1,400 workers and residents of Palma, to the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado, Pemba, which for more than a year has suffered wave after wave of displaced people, fleeing jihadist violence in the poor and predominantly Muslim province. And a number of traditional canoes and sailing boats, laden with civilians, continue to flow into Pemba, according to the source involved in the evacuation operations.
Who are the Shebabs terrorizing northern Mozambique?
It all started in October 2017. That day, around thirty armed men launched a raid at dawn against three police stations in Mocimboa da Praia, a port town in the province of Cabo Delgado, bordering Tanzania, and predominantly Muslim. “We thought they wanted to release their comrades accused of belonging to a radical religious sect calling on the population to disobey the laws”, told AFP at the end of 2020 an imam who values his anonymity. It is in fact the start of a bloody jihadist guerrilla warfare that continues to ravage the province, forcing to date more than 670,000 people from their homes, according to the UN, and killing at least 2,600, including more than half of civilians, according to the NGO Acled.
The movement was born around 2007, around a group called Ansaru-Sunna, which is building new mosques adopting a rigorous Islam, according to Éric Morier-Genoud, professor of African history in Belfast. The local authorities then underestimate their nuisance capacity, which also feeds on the disappointments of offshore gas exports, which even before having started, drives out inhabitants from their villages and their fishing grounds.
Today, the Afungi peninsula, the nerve center of gas installations which represent one of the largest investments in Africa and in which the French group Total participates in particular. The leaders of these rebels, known locally as “al-shebab”, remain a mystery. But they pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019. They burned down many villages, after looting them, and practiced large-scale beheading to terrorize the population. They also kidnap young men and women to increase their ranks. They control much of the coastal area, including the port of Mocimboa da Praia, taken in August 2020.
Poorly equipped and poorly trained, the army at first seemed outdated, in this southern African country independent from Portugal since 1975. Mozambique made a success of its democratic transition almost 30 years ago, at the end of a long and bloody civil war which lasted fifteen years and left a million dead, until a peace agreement in 1992. Thousands of soldiers were however deployed, resulting in a lull in recent months, attributed by the authorities with a military response.
In view of the spectacular operation carried out against Palma, the decline in activity of the Islamists now seems to be more likely attributable to the rainy season, which slows everything down, but also to the preparation of new attacks. The soldiers are “poorly equipped”, commented for AFP Sergio Chichava, of the Eduardo Mondlane University, in Maputo, and they rely on “weapons from another age”. Washington announced in mid-March the dispatch of US special forces for two months of training. The authorities have called on a private South African military company, Dyck Advisory Group (DAG), to support the Mozambican security forces, which are also said to be discreetly supported by Russian mercenaries, according to observers.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
