Overview
Islamic State Mozambique (ISM) activity remained at low levels during the past fortnight, likely due to the ongoing month of Ramadan. The group was active in Meluco, Macomia, and Mocímboa da Praia districts. Most of the group’s actions this month focused on resupplying, with a village raid in Meluco, ambushes on the N380, and holding fishing boats for ransom in Mocímboa da Praia and Macomia districts. The Mocímboa da Praia district administrator is optimistic that insurgents want to turn themselves in, and he has urged people to receive them. However, there have been no reports of such approaches in recent weeks.
Click below to read the latest update in Portuguese
Cabo Ligado
Situation Summary
Insurgents remain active in Meluco
There were sightings of insurgents around the village of Ravia in Meluco on 10 and 13 March, triggering panic among locals. Insurgents have appeared several times in this area since 29 January, when they beheaded at least three artisanal miners.
On the morning of 17 March, insurgents attacked the village of Iba in Meluco, approximately 80 kilometers east of Ravia, killing one civilian and setting fire to around 60 homes. The Islamic State (IS) shared photos on 21 March purporting to show insurgents burning a house and standing over a captured villager. One local source reported that the assailants had come from the village of Nguida in Macomia and therefore may be unrelated to the group spotted in Ravia.
On 20 March, insurgents attacked Pitolha village, about 25 km from Meluco district headquarters, and burned several buildings, one source claimed. Sources said there were indications that the group had wanted to attack Meluco headquarters.
Local Force member killed as insurgents step up attacks on N380
The attack on Iba followed an ambush the Mozambican military sprang on insurgents in Nguida, around 15 km off the N380, on 14 March. Lusa reported that seven insurgents were shot dead and several others were wounded.
On 22 March, insurgents launched an ambush of their own on a cement truck on the N380 outside the village of Chai, killing a Local Force militiaman and seriously injuring the driver and his assistant. A video circulating online shows the truck in the aftermath of the attack surrounded by soldiers who appear to be from the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), based at an outpost just 1.5 km north of Chai. Two days later, a Local Force chief complained to Zumbo FM about the slow response time of the RDF in general and their lack of coordination with the Local Force.
The next day, insurgents attempted to kidnap civilians, including women, from at least four vehicles on a nearby stretch of the N380 near Chai area but were stopped by an RDF patrol after a brief exchange of fire. Local sources suggest the insurgents may have believed the truck was carrying food.
Fishermen held for ransom
ISM activity along the coast of Macomia and Mocímboa da Praia continued in the last fortnight, suggesting that Cabo Delgado’s waters are not being adequately patrolled by security forces. Since the beginning of the year there have been at least six events involving ISM in coastal waters. On 19 March, insurgents captured up to 40 fishermen near Tambuzi island, off the coast of Mocímboa da Praia, and tried to ransom them for 35,000 meticais (around 550 US dollars). The fishermen were released the next day but it is not publicly known if the ransom was paid. On 21 March, insurgents captured four fishing boats off the coast of Macomia and held the fishermen for ransom at the village of Pequeue in Macomia district.
As well as kidnapping fishermen, insurgents have continued to attack security forces and engage with the local population around the coastal zone of Macomia and Mocímboa da Praia. On 10 March, insurgents appeared in the village of Ulo, around 10 km south of Mocímboa da Praia town, and demanded that teachers introduce an Islamic curriculum, Zumbo FM reported. The Islamic State said insurgents had detonated an IED on a mounted Defense Armed Forces of Mozambique (FADM) patrol in the village of Quiterajo on 13 March, claiming to have killed and wounded a number of soldiers. IS published photographs of the incident in its newspaper al-Naba on 20 March, showing three soldiers fully exposed at the back of an armored vehicle before the explosion.
IS also claimed to have killed a civilian in the village of Chinda in Mocímboa da Praia, but did not specify when, and the incident has not been corroborated by other sources. The same claim was issued again the following night, suggesting there may have been some system failure on the part of IS media operations, and casting doubt on the claim.
Focus: District administrator urges residents to welcome insurgents home
The administrator of Mocímboa da Praia district, Sérgio Cipriano, told Pemba’s Zumbo FM on 22 March that there are signs that the insurgents’ behavior is becoming more benign, with fighters approaching residents for food. He said this seems to be driven by hunger, and urged the community to help any insurgents who approach them looking for food. Cipriano spoke of the importance of dialogue and forgiveness.
Over the course of the insurgency, ACLED records just two cases of insurgents surrendering in Mocímboa da Praia. Both events were in August 2024, likely in the wake of intensive Rwandan operations in the south of the district launched in July that year.
Reports of recent insurgent activity in Mocímboa da Praia district do not wholly support Cipriano’s position. More recent actions have been sporadic, but they present a clear threat to civilian populations in the district. The events reported in this update are typical of the group’s behavior in recent months. The hijacking of a fishing boat at Tambuzi was the third such incident this year, and the second at Tambuzi. The relatively free movement of insurgents on the waters off both Mocímboa da Praia and Macomia does not suggest that they are looking to give themselves in.
So far this year, ISM has clashed just twice with state forces in Mocímboa da Praia district, once when overrunning a FADM position at Mitope, and once when disturbed by Rwandan forces at Malinde on the coast north of Mocímboa da Praia town.
ISM violence in Mocimboa da Praia does not contradict Cipriano’s position that some insurgents may be desperate, and may wish to return. Most of Cabo Delgado province is currently classified as facing a food security crisis, a crisis which may be extending to insurgents. Their movement too is restricted as rivers are currently at their seasonal height. In his remarks, Cipriano referred to the “presidential initiative” to forgive those who return to their communities. Former President Filipe Nyusi on numerous occasions has stated, most recently in September, that insurgents who give themselves up would be forgiven, but he never specified the mechanism, such as a formal deradicalization program or other process, for offering this forgiveness. President Daniel Chapo has yet to echo his predecessor’s conciliatory public tone. Like Nyusi, Cipriano focuses on reconciliation, though is similarly nonspecific. With this lack of clarity, we may see continued low-level insurgent activity in Mocímboa da Praia for the foreseeable future.
Round Up
France investigates TotalEnergies for manslaughter
French prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation against TotalEnergies in connection with the 2021 attack by ISM on the city of Palma in Cabo Delgado. Survivors and relatives of victims of the attack launched legal action against the company in October 2023, accusing it of neglecting its duty to protect its subcontractors. The decision to launch an investigation follows a preliminary inquiry opened by prosecutors in May last year.
US approves $4.7 billion loan for Mozambique LNG
The US Export-Import Bank has approved a $4.7 billion loan for the TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG project in Afungi in northern Cabo Delgado. US Exim had previously agreed to the loan but it needed to be reapproved after the project was suspended in April 2021 following the insurgent attack on Palma. Estêvão Pale, Mozambique's minister for energy, told the Financial Times that he expects the UK and Netherlands will also reapprove their support for the project. The Dutch government’s decision will likely depend on the result of an inquiry announced on 4 March into allegations of human rights abuses committed by Mozambican security forces in relation to the LNG projects in Cabo Delgado. UK Export Finance has also commissioned its own report on alleged human rights abuses connected to the TotalEnergies project.
Possible return of insurgent activity to Tanzania
The United States embassy in Tanzania issued a security alert on 21 March for “islands and coastal areas south of Kisiju.” The following day, the Tanzania police issued a statement saying that it was working with other security agencies on the developments. Neither gave further details, though it is likely that the alerts relate to movements of groups related to ISM. Kisiju is a small port village in Mkuranga district, about 60 km south of Dar es Salaam, and over 350 km north of the Mozambique border.
Between 2015 and 2017, an armed group with violent jihadist connections was operating in Mkuranga district and the neighboring districts of Kibiti and Rufiji. Key members of the group fled to Cabo Delgado in 2017 in the wake of a police operation in those districts. In February this year, a Tanzanian content creator suggested on X that a key member of the group involved in the 2016 killing of four police officers in Dar es Salaam was from Kisiju. The killings were part of a series of raids on police stations, thought to have been undertaken by the group in Mkuranga, Kibiti and Rufiji districts.
EU sanctions RDF officers who have served in Mozambique
On 17 March, the Council of the European Union sanctioned nine individuals and one entity in relation to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Three of those sanctioned are RDF officers. Major-General Eugene Nkubito currently commands the RDF’s Third Division in DRC and led Rwandan forces in Mozambique for one year up to August 2023. Major-General Pascal Muhizi served as a Battle Group Commander in Mozambique prior to deployment in DRC. A third, Major-General Ruki “Rocky” Karusisi, is the commander of the RDF’s Special Force Command. It is not known if he has served in Mozambique.
The sanctions come under a 2005 Council regulation to impose financial restrictions on individuals breaking a United Nations arms embargo on DRC.
EU completes program of support to FADM
The European Union has completed a program for the provision of nonlethal equipment to FADM. A spokesperson told Zitamar News that the final transfer of materiel was made on 7 February. This follows the handover to FADM in July 2024 of EU-funded equipment that had been provided to the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique, the mandate of which ended that month.
President Chapo meets Venâncio Mondlane to address the political crisis
Mozambican President Daniel Chapo met with the former presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane in Maputo on 23 March, according to a statement released by the presidency last night. The meeting at the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Center was described as an effort to promote national stability and reconciliation amid ongoing political unrest following last year's disputed elections.
In a separate statement on his Facebook page, Mondlane said the meeting aimed to start a joint process to respond to the demands and aspirations of the Mozambican people.
){kind=link}