Cabo Delgado - The African Mirror

Mar

2021

A more complex reality in Cabo Delgado

JOSEPH HANLON WHEN the uprising started in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province, in 2017, the insurgents used the only weapons they had: their machetes. And they cut off the heads of local elites whom they accused of being allied to the leaders of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in stealing the mineral wealth. Forty years ago, there was another civil war in Mozambique, in which the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) committed atrocities such as burning people alive in buses. But Renamo had been trained by the apartheid military, many of whom were believing members of the Dutch Reformed Church,…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Armed groups attack Mozambique ‘gas town’

NEWS

ARMED groups yesterday attacked the northern Mozambique town closest to gas projects worth some $60 billion, two sources told Reuters, striking ever closer to developments that have already stalled due to security problems. The attack on the town of Palma, less than 25 by road from a construction camp for the gas developments led by oil majors like Total, happened on the same day that the French company announced it would gradually resume works at the site after suspending them due to nearby attacks. Mozambique's northern-most province of Cabo Delgado has since 2017 been home to a festering Islamist insurgency…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

UN fear radicalisation of Mozambicans

NEWS

EMMA RUMNEY MOZAMBICANS uprooted by a jihadist insurgency have the potential to become radicalised themselves if they lack basic essentials and root causes of the conflict are not addressed, United Nations officials has warned. Islamic State-linked militants have in the past year escalated attacks in Mozambique's northernmost province, Cabo Delgado, murdering villagers, fighting the army and seizing towns. Beheadings have been a hallmark of attacks. The number of people fleeing their homes swelled from 70,000 to about 700,000 over the last year, said Raouf Mazou, the U.N. refugee agency's assistant high commissioner for operations. Many initially made their way south…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Intensifying Islamist insurgency in Mozambique drives humanitarian crisis

NEWS

MORE than half-a-million people have fled their homes due to an Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique, and the violence and humanitarian crisis will worsen without international help, according to United Nations officials. "If nothing is done soon, we won't have only 535,000 displaced people. We won't have only 2,000 people killed by the conflict, but tens of thousands," said Valentin Tapsoba, regional director for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). The displaced people were in a dire situation, with overcrowding, malnutrition and a lack of essentials including food and water, the officials said in an online news briefing. Insurgents staged…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Mozambique’s village of beheadings retaken from insurgents

NEWS

OVER 1,000 Mozambique troops have recaptured the northern village of Muidumbe from Islamist insurgents, police general commander Bernardino Rafael said, killing 16 and destroying some of their logistics. Mozambique's northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, home to gas developments worth some $60 billion, is grappling with an insurgency linked to Islamic State that has gathered pace this year, with insurgents regularly taking on the army and seizing entire towns. Speaking to troops in a field in Muidumbe, an area where local media reported a spate of beheadings by insurgents last week, Rafael congratulated the men for their victory onbut warned they…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Catalogue of failures behind growing humanitarian crisis in northern Mozambique

HUMAN RIGHTS

CABO Delgado, the northernmost province of Mozambique, has been under attack for three years. The violence was triggered in 2017 when armed men attacked a police station, killing one police officer and critically injuring another. Locals identified the assailants as “al-shabaab”, alluding to an Islamic connection. CRISTIANO D'ORSI, Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg This year, the violence has escalated. In August, militants linked to the Islamic State seized the province’s strategic port town. The militants are reported to have formal ties to Islamic State. They are also…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

EU to offer Mozambique support in tackling insurgency

NEWS

THE European Union will offer Mozambique support in tackling a wave of militant attacks in the country's north by rebels with links to Islamic State, according to the EU's ambassador to the southern African nation. The rebel attacks in Cabo Delgado province date back to 2017 but the violence has gathered pace this year with insurgents seizing important towns for brief periods and hitting military and other strategic targets. Mozambique had asked the EU for help in training its armed forces to battle the insurgency, which has raised fears for stability and security in southern Africa. "The government of Mozambique…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Mozambique asks EU for help in tackling insurgency

NEWS

MOZAMBIQUE has asked the European Union for support in tackling a wave of militant attacks in the country's north by rebels with links to Islamic State, a conflict that has raised fears for stability and security in southern Africa. The Islamist attacks in Cabo Delgado province date to 2017 but the violence has gathered pace this year, with insurgents seizing important towns for brief periods and hitting military and other key targets. The Portuguese news agency Lusa said on Tuesday Mozambique had written to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to ask for help in training its armed forces to…