Mozambique sits on the warm South-Eastern edge of Africa. Its coastline along the Indian Ocean is over 2000 kilometers long, dotted with pristine beaches, palm trees and mangroves. It is often described as “Africa’s most beautiful coast”. Offshore, Mozambique has an abundance of picturesque coral reefs inhabited by a variety of fish life. Dozens of small tropical islands are scattered off the coast, many of which host luxury resorts frequented by A-list celebrities.
It is hard to believe that this tropical paradise has suffered one of the most brutal Islamic insurgencies in recent years.
What began in 2017 as a small gang of disaffected youths rebelling against local authorities in the country’s northern province of Cabo Delgado, has since rapidly grown into one of the Islamic State’s most barbaric affiliated groups outside its main theatre of Iraq and Syria.
Although the group pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2018, it was not until early 2021 that it drew international media attention following a large scale assault on the town of Palma, where the group besieged a resort housing scores of foreign contractors who were working on a nearby oil and gas project.
After a week of heavy fighting, the Mozambican military, with the assistance of South African private security contractors from the Dyke Advisory Group, finally regained control of the town from the insurgents. Hundreds of locals and foreigners were injured in the attack and over 80 were killed, including UK citizen Philip Mawer. Most notably, dozens of victims had been beheaded by the insurgents — a symbolic tactic of the global Islamic State brand.
The attack caused a French energy company, Total, to declare ‘force majeure’ and suspend its $20 billion LNG project in the area.
Days later, the Islamic State-linked Amaq news agency would claim responsibility for the attack, stating that it was carried out by members of the group’s Central African Province.
Following the Palma attack, the Mozambican Defense Forces began a renewed offensive against the group with assistance from Rwanda and a separate military intervention led by the Southern African Development Community. In August 2021, the Rwandan Defence Force announced that the insurgents had been dislodged from their enclave in Mocimboa da Praia — a strategic port city which they had controlled for more than 2 years.
Whilst many had hoped the group had been defeated, it had simply entered a new phase — one defined by expansion and new tactics.
Expansion
As the Islamic State insurgents lost control of their stronghold in Cabo Delgado, they soon began to disperse across regions they had traditionally avoided. The first well documented evidence of this was a cross-border attack in Tanzania, on September 20, where approximate 15 insurgents looted stores, burned houses, killed 2 civilians and abducted several more in the village of Mahurunga.
The group has since carried out 8 more attacks in Tanzania, the most significant of which occurred on December 10th, 2021. According to local reporting, the insurgents conducted a night raid on the village of Kiwengulo, just across the Ruvuma river which forms the border between Mozambique and Tanzania. 5 civilians were killed, 3 of which were beheaded, before the Tanzanian military arrived to repel the attackers. In the ensuing firefight, 5 insurgents were killed and a Tanzanian military vehicle was destroyed.
As the group continues to push north into Tanzania, it has also spread west into Mozambique’s Niassa province, where 5 major attacks have been recorded since late 2021, and even east into the archipelagos that sit off the shores of Cabo Delgado.
The first offshore attack came on February 1, 2022, when a group of insurgents carried out a late afternoon raid on the tourist island of Matemo, where they looted stores and burned buildings. 3 civilians were killed and a hospital was burned to the ground.
Then on March 18, fierce fighting was again reported on Matemo Island. Around 20 insurgents dressed in Mozambican military uniforms arrived on the island by boat, where they clashed with local security forces, resulting in over a dozen casualties.
Both attacks would later be claimed by the Islamic State’s central media department.
Most recently, the group has also begun to launch attacks south into the province of Nampula. In mid-June, the Islamic State’s media department claimed an attack against a Christian village in the Memba district. Interestingly, the attack was said to have been carried out by the group’s Mozambique Wilayah (province), suggesting that an administrational decision had been made by Islamic State leaders to rename the group as its own unique province. Prior to this, it had been referred to simply as “Central Africa Province” — a name shared with its counter part in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This rebranding is likely a reflection of the group’s recent territorial expansion.
New Tactics
Lastly, the insurgents have shifted to new forms of tactics. In early March, it was reported that 3 Islamic State drones were brought down by the Mozambican military, using an Israeli-designed drone jamming system which was sold to them in September of last year.
Commercially available drones are easy to acquire and can serve multiple purposes for insurgent groups, including to film propaganda videos, scout enemy positions, and can even be modified to drop explosives.
Burning villages has also become a signature tactic. In doing so, the group causes mass waves of internally displaced populations across the region, which adds an extra layer of chaos for the Mozambican government to contend with as its resources and forces in the north are already spread thin.
The group is also attacking new targets. Whilst the early days of the insurgency focused on guerilla-style warfare against members of the local defense and security forces, it has recently prioritized attacks against Christians. The vast majority of attacks claimed since the beginning of the year have been against predominantly Christian villages. However, it is difficult to determine if this is just used as an excuse for the group’s indiscriminate targeting of civilians — an act which is generally criticized by Islamic State leaders who consider civilian deaths as counterproductive to their goal of winning over the hearts and minds of the local populace.
Reminiscent of its 2021 attack against the French LNG project in Palma, the group also claimed an assault on an Australian-owned graphite mine in Ancuabe on June 8th, which led to the deaths of 2 security staff. This demonstrates that the group still prioritizes attacks against foreign targets over all else.
Although the insurgency has been weakened due to ongoing military pressure, there is still no indication that it will end anytime soon. Its adaption to the changing environment is something of great concern.