Mocambique: A Perfect Storm

MOZAMBIQUE

A Perfect Storm

South African anti-poaching snipers helped Mozambican forces push back militants in the country’s war-torn, gas-rich northern region of Cabo Delgado recently.

As reported in the Telegraph, the appearance of the sharpshooters was the latest development in a civil war that kicked off in late 2017. The militants known sometimes as Ansar al-Sunnah have seized towns, and beheaded those who resist. In the port city of Mocímboa da Praia, the rebels hoisted the black flag of Islamic State on government buildings. More than 1,000 people have died in the fighting.

Thickening the plot, a massive gas field was discovered off the coast of Cabo Delgado. The US has been competing with China to finance development of the field, Bloomberg reported.

The government has also been arresting journalists and researchers who have attempted to investigate happenings in the region, raising questions about whether officials have launched a heavy-handed response that might help stoke the uprising, the New Humanitarian wrote.

Writing in World Politics Review, Yale University Doctoral Candidate Hilary Matfess and RAND Corporation Political Scientist Alexander Noyes agreed with that point. In a video, for example, militant leaders appealed to Cabo Delgado residents, saying, “We occupy (the towns) to show that the government of the day is unfair. It humiliates the poor and gives the profit to the bosses.”

As the violence has escalated, it’s been hard to bring humanitarian aid into Cabo Delgado that might improve the situation. As many as 200,000 people in the region are displaced, a potential disaster in a country that already suffers from the challenges related to poverty.

“There are still thousands of displaced people who are hiding in the bush, too scared to go back to their villages,” said Caroline Gaudron Rose of Medecins Sans Frontieres “They are terrified of the ongoing violence…without shelter, clean water and access to medical care, they are extremely vulnerable.”

The coronavirus pandemic is now complicating matters, Voice of America added. Displaced people can spread the virus not only through their movements but by hunkering down together when they understandably seek safety in numbers.

The militants have handed out food and other supplies to people in a bid to drum up public support.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, meanwhile, has vowed not to let the fighting devolve into a civil war reminiscent of the 16-year-long conflict between communists and anti-communists that ended in 1992, Vatican News reported. Regional leaders are discussing how to help, Al Jazeera noted.

Observers say that’s a start. But the response is not quick enough.

“I don’t know what the government is going to do,” said a 29-year-old teacher from Muidumbe, speaking to the New Humanitarian. “Right now, there’s people who don’t know what they’re going to eat.”