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1 1 (July 28, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveebk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Resear h Service ;~M Inforrning the legislative debate sin ce 1914 0 Updated July 28, 2021 Insurgency in Northern Mozambique: Nature and Responses An armed Islamist insurgency in Mozambique-launched in 2017 with an attack on several police posts in Cabo Delgado province, in the country's north-has burgeoned. The insurgency and state security responses to it have resulted in many serious human rights abuses and killings, widespread social trauma and property destruction, and massive population displacements, creating a complex humanitarian crisis. Insurgent attacks also have prompted the French energy firm Total to declare force majeure and suspend a $20 billion, partially U.S. government-financed natural gas processing project, one of several major projects designed to tap large gas fields discovered offshore in 2010. The insurgents, locally dubbed Al Shabaab (the youth, also the name of a separate Al Qaeda-linked Somali group), also are known as Ahlu Sunna Wa-Jamo (Adherents of the Sunnah or ASWJ; spellings vary) and by other names. In 2019, ASWJ reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS), which often claims and lauds the group's attacks and counts it as a member of its IS Central Africa Province (ISCAP), together with affiliates in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia. Figure I. Cabo Delgado Some observers have Province, Mozambique questioned the extent and import of ASWJ-IS ties, but U.N. global terrorism SPama |monitors and U.S. officials #4a assert that operational links exist between them. In March 2021, the State Department, labeling ASWJ as ISIS- Mozambique, designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and Source: CRS. also named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist a Tanzanian whom officials identified as the group's leader. These actions ban material support to ASWJ and transactions between the group and U.S. persons, and freeze any U.S. property it may possess. Tactics. Initially, ASWJ used simple bladed weapons and some guns, but since 2018, it has become increasingly well-armed and hit progressively more significant targets. ASWJ often attacks security force posts and convoys, state workers and facilities (e.g., schools and clinics), and civilian targets-notably road traffic and poor rural villages. Its fighters often loot and burn food and other property, and injure, kill, or kidnap residents, notably youths and women. The rationale for the group's attacks often is unclear, but some, notably a number involving mass beheadings-a notorious IS tactic-appear intended to punish perceived ASWJ foes, such as state workers and persons who resist ASWJ recruitment, including children, or whom ASWJ suspects of cooperating with authorities. ASWJ occasionally has warned civilians of impending attacks, limited arson to state or large business facilities, distributed looted food, and preached to locals on the group's religious precepts. Some reports indicate that different ASWJ cells may use disparate tactics and levels of violence, and that some attempt to indoctrinate abductees religiously. ASWJ has reportedly recruited by force and by offering payments to fighters; financing micro- entrepreneurs-whom the group then may also extort, demanding payments or in-kind support, such as surveillance of urban targets; and, in some cases, by aiding those seeking Islamic education abroad. ASWJ's military prowess has grown since 2017; it has repeatedly executed complex operations (e.g., concurrent attacks on multiple targets, multi-pronged assaults on key towns, boat-based maritime assaults on local sea traffic and islands, and cross-border attacks into Tanzania). It undertakes espionage and seeks to infiltrate security forces and civilian populations, and some ASWJ fighters wear state military uniforms and use arms reportedly looted from state forces. ASWJ also reportedly uses drones and locally atypical weapons, suggesting it may have access to illicit arms trade networks. It also kidnaps for ransom and may receive funds and other aid from abroad, potentially including from other ISCAP affiliates. ASWJ controls some territory, and has held the port town of Mocimboa da Praia since August 2020. In March 2021, it attacked Palma, a coastal town, after cutting road links to it, causing sharp food inflation and shortages. Prior attacks on Palma's outskirts may have been probing actions. The March attack resulted in mass fatalities, including multiple beheadings, and threatened a huge nearby natural gas processing plant being developed by a consortium led by Total. Many Palma residents seeking safety fled to the plant site, which ASWJ did not breach. The site is heavily protected by state security forces who remained embedded there while the insurgents overran Palma. After the attack, Total suspended the project and withdrew its staff, pending the state's reestablishment of security. State security forces reportedly looted Palma extensively after the attack. Drivers. A confluence of local socioeconomic grievances and religious aims appear to motivate ASWJ, which seeks to supplant the secular state with Islamic Sharia law-based governance. Researchers, however, debate the relative strength, logic, and linkages between these and other factors in explaining the insurgency's evolution, as well as the extent to which ISIS or other foreign influences shape it. A key source of grievance is the state's historical marginalization of Cabo Delgado, one of Mozambique's poorest regions, and resulting high rates of poverty, socioeconomic inequality, and youth unemployment. The state's displacement of some coastal villagers and its

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