- EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 22/Jun 23:36

IS-Mozambique Launches Wave Of High-Profile Attacks

The Islamic State group in Mozambique (ISM) is expanding its area of operations and its tactics. In the past year, the terrorists have stretched out from their strongholds around the towns of Macomia, Mocímboa da Praia and Muidumbe in northeast Cabo Delgado province, attacking or being seen in 14 of the province’s 15 districts. ISM’s surge of recent attacks also included neighboring Niassa province to the west of Cabo Delgado. Experts say a series of high-profile attacks underscored the group’s resurgence and growing confidence while achieving a goal of raising its profile. Two deadly raids on tourist wildlife sites in Niassa province were for “propaganda effect,” according to Fernando Lima, a researcher with the Cabo Ligado conflict observatory, which monitors the insurgency. Lima explained that the attacks on tourist sites netted ISM more international media attention than those on villages that took the lives of locals. On April 19, a group of 40 ISM fighters stormed the luxury Chapungu-Kambako Safaris hunting camp in the Niassa Special Reserve. The militants beheaded two workers, took several hostages and occupied the site for five days. “After capturing four workers, the insurgents demanded a ransom of three million meticais for the release of their victims, but this was rejected due to global rules against financing terrorism. After the rejection, the terrorists set fire to the main camp,” the Carta de Moçambique newspaper reported on April 24. Ten days later, insurgents attacked the Mariri Environmental Centre in Niassa’s Mecula district. The Islamic State group claimed that the local insurgents killed six Soldiers, wounded several others, set fire to a plane and captured a hoard of weapons. The Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP), a conservation program based at Mariri, confirmed the attack in a statement and said two of its anti-poaching scouts who likely were thought to be Soldiers by ISM fighters were killed in the attack, while two others were missing. Many of the 2,000 people in nearby Mbamba village fled into the bush, the NCP said. It was the terrorist group’s first significant incursion into Niassa province since 2021. “The attack’s propaganda value is significant, as it demonstrates the group’s impact to its members, potential recruits and the wider IS network,” Cabo Ligado said in its May 7 weekly report. “The attacks again demonstrate ISM’s ability to vary its tactics and to strike far from its normal operational areas in Macomia. The attacks will also further hit the country’s tourism industry.” Analysis of the attacks in the IS weekly al-Naba newsletter noted their impact on local communities, employment, increased security, reconstruction costs and the likelihood of declining tourism numbers. The hunting sector in Mozambique is not on the scale of those in neighboring South Africa or Tanzania, but ISM’s attacks are certain to damage the country’s reputation. On May 3, terrorists ambushed a group of Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) Soldiers near the village of Notwe in Mocímboa da Praia district, killing three and wounding six. “The RDF is a better-equipped and trained force than the FADM (Mozambican military) and insurgents have previously been reluctant to directly target RDF forces, given the risks involved,” said Executive Research Associates, a security risk consultancy. “The May 3 ambush underscores [ISM’s] growing confidence and self-belief that it has the capabilities to attack these forces directly.” On May 10, the hydrographic survey ship Atlantida sent a distress signal when it came under fire from ISM fighters near Tambuzi island in Mocímboa da Praia district. The ship escaped undamaged. “The attack on the Atlantida indicates ISM’s confidence in nearshore operations — those in littoral waters — and reflects its increasing presence in Cabo Delgado’s nearshore waters,” Cabo Ligado stated in a May 21 update. “The incident suggests a willingness and capacity to go beyond a concentration on looting and hostage-taking.” The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project recorded at least 80 ISM attacks in the first four months of the year, an uptick it attributed partly to the end of the rainy season making roads passable. FADM and RDF leaders say they are working to improve communication and coordination between the militaries, but one Mozambican officer said the concentration of forces in Cabo Delgado has helped ISM identify other areas in which to operate. “[It] allows insurgents to easily conduct operations in Niassa province,” he told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.