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~sionoI Research Service
0
Updated July 5, 2022
Insurgency in Northern Mozambique: Nature and Responses
An armed Islamic State-linked insurgency in
Mozambique's far north-launched in 2017 with an attack
on several police posts in Cabo Delgado province-remains
highly active and poses challenges to U.S. peace, security,
and development goals in the country. 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 prompted the French energy firm
TotalEnergies (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.
Congressional hearings have monitored the insurgency and
responses to it, and the House is considering H.Res. 720
(Jacobs (CA)), which calls for enhanced efforts to counter
the insurgency and promote human rights. In April 2022,
the Biden Administration chose Mozambique to receive
new U.S. aid under the Global Fragility Act (2019).
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 other names. In
2019, ASWJ reportedly pledged fealty to the Islamic State
(IS or ISIS), which often claims the group's attacks and had
counted it as a member of the IS Central Africa Province,
jointly with a group in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In May 2022, IS appeared to elevate ASWJ, labeling it the
IS Wilayah [Province] Mozambique.
Figure I. Cabo Delgado Some observers have
Province, Mozambique questioned the extent and
import of ASWJ-IS ties,
but U.N. global terrorism
- ammonitors and U.S. officials
assert that they have
d Pi operational linkages. In
March 2021, the State
Department, labeling
ASWJ as ISIS-
Mozambique (ISIS-M or
IS-M), designated it as a
Foreign Terrorist
Source: CRS. Organization. Two IS-M
leaders, a Tanzanian and a Mozambican, were later named
U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The United
States also has sanctioned an alleged IS-M financier. These
actions freeze any U.S.-based IS-M property and ban
transactions between IS-M and U.S. persons.
Tactics. Initially, IS-M used bladed weapons and some
guns, but since 2018, IS-M has become increasingly
well-armed and hit progressively more significant targets.
IS-M often attacks security force posts and convoys,
civilian state workers and facilities (e.g., schools and
clinics), and rural villages and road traffic. Its fighters
frequently loot or burn food and other property, and injure,
kill, or kidnap residents, especially youths and women. The
rationale for IS-M's attacks often is unclear, but some,
notably several mass beheadings-a notorious IS tactic
globally-appear intended to punish perceived IS-M foes,
such as state workers, those who resist IS-M recruitment,
including children, or persons whom IS-M suspects of
cooperating with authorities.
Occasionally, IS-M has warned civilians of impending
attacks, limited arson to state or large business facilities,
distributed looted food, and preached to locals. It also
reportedly endeavors to religiously indoctrinate its captives.
IS-M reportedly recruits on the basis of ideology; by force;
by offering payments to fighters; and by financing micro-
entrepreneurs, whom IS-M then may extort for revenue or
intelligence It also kidnaps for ransom and may receive
funds and other aid from IS supporters abroad.
Capacity. IS-M's military prowess has grown since 2017;
it has repeatedly executed complex operations (e.g.,
concurrent attacks on multiple targets or major towns, boat-
based maritime assaults on local sea traffic and islands, and
cross-border attacks into Tanzania). It also has held
territory, such as the port town of Mocfmboa da Praia
(between August 2020 and 2021), and regularly seeks to
infiltrate security forces and civilian populations. IS-M
fighters often wear state military uniforms and reportedly
use arms looted from state forces, as well as drones and
locally atypical weapons, suggesting they may have access
to illicit arms trade networks.
In March 2021, IS-M attacked Palma, a coastal town and
site of the large natural gas processing plant being
developed by the Total-led energy firm consortium. The
attack resulted in mass fatalities, including multiple
beheadings, and threatened the plant, which was under
construction, and its workers. Thousands of Palma residents
seeking safety fled to the plant site's perimeter, which IS-M
did not breach. During the attack, state security forces
assigned to protect the Total site remained embedded there
while IS-M fighters overran Palma, though other state
forces later cleared Palma of insurgents. Nonetheless, Total
suspended the project and withdrew its staff, pending a
return to long-term stability in and around the site.
Events following the attack highlighted poor behavior by
some national forces. After the attack, a group of soldiers
reportedly extensively looted banks in Palma. In addition,
internally displaced persons (IDPs) who remained near the
Total site after the attack also reported that security forces
extorted bribes from those seeking to flee and sold food
supplies to stranded IDPs at inflated prices. Months after](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/goveigb0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)