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MAPUTO, Nov 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Musty salt air crept at dusk over the nets and moored boats on northern Mozambique’s coast as seven armed and uniformed men marched into the fishing community last month, demanding the keys to the mosque.
Once inside, they commanded – over the microphone used for the call to prayer – that locals on the edge of the port town of Mocimboa da Praia come to listen.
It was only when they unfurled an ISIS banner, the mosque’s imam Sumail Issa said, that it became clear who they were. Also palpable was the new-found confidence of the jihadists, emerging in recent months after the chaotic collapse of US aid funding to one of Africa’s poorest countries.
“When they called everyone over, as soon as they saw that flag, a colleague and I left, saying we needed the toilet,” Issa said, adding they went to notify the military.
The men’s faces were exposed, video posted to social media reveals, and the speech one of them gave was considered – delivering a highly localized manifesto, showing both ambition and independence from other ISIS franchises, analysts have noted.
Locals didn’t flee but attentively filmed, the social media video shows. ISIS had made their point about where they could roam, unopposed.
Mozambique’s gas-rich northern Cabo Delgado region has been ravaged by eight years of killing and land grabs. The insurgents seized control of this coastal town from August 2020 to August 2021, resulting in significant displacement and damage. Four years followed during which Mozambican and Rwandan forces – acting under invitation from Maputo – restored partial order, and Western governments surged aid into the region. Many of those who had fled the violence returned.
However, the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) under an executive order from President Donald Trump in January cut some assistance entirely, and drastically reduced other programs, some of which were aimed at boosting the central government’s presence and curbing extremism.
On September 7, ISIS began a strident offensive again, hitting its former stronghold of Mocimboa da Praia, beheading dozens of mostly Christian men over the course of several weeks, and triggering the flight of tens of thousands of residents. — NNN-AGENCIES
