Mocambique-Domino Theory

 

MOZAMBIQUE

Domino Theory

People used stones and bedsheets to write “Help” and “SOS” on the ground in a desperate attempt to gain the attention of an aircraft flying over Palma during an Islamic State attack on the city.

As government forces fled after the surprise attack in late March on the northern Mozambique town, the Dyck Advisory Group, a private military contractor, was trying to evacuate folks in helicopters, Sky News reported. “We won’t survive another night,” South African construction contractor Wesley Nel told CBS News. “If they get in… we’ll be slaughtered.”

The Mozambican military has since regained control of the city of around 70,000, the BBC wrote. But the consequences of the violence are still being felt.

Dozens were killed in the attack. Wesley’s brother, Adrian, was among them, killed during an ambush as he attempted to flee the city in a vehicle convoy along with thousands.

Palma is near French company Total’s oil and gas facilities. The boldness, speed and ferocity of the attack took many by surprise. But Islamic State-affiliated militants calling themselves Ansar al-Sunna also known as al-Shabab (the Youth) have been operating in the region since 2017. Many fear the attack was an opening salvo in a larger campaign to gain control of the former Portuguese colony.

That campaign has claimed at least 2,700 and displaced as many as 600,000 people, the Washington Times wrote. Hunger and famine are growing worse. Impoverished Mozambique was already suffering from a humanitarian crisis stemming from a devastating cyclone in 2019, added Al Jazeera.

The government of President Filipe Nyusi in the capital of Maputo has long resisted foreign help with the crisis. His reluctance could stem from how the militants are less jihadists and more aggrieved citizens who, as Amnesty International says, live in a region that has suffered “decades of under-investment, government negligence, and crushing poverty.”

Some locals welcome the armed groups, feeling fury over the situation: The northern coastal region, with more than 2.3 million people, has enormous natural wealth, including oil and gas reserves, ruby deposits and other gems and minerals. Meanwhile, residents, most of them Muslim, live in one of the poorest districts in the country, which has a per capita income of $503 a year. The region is marked by high illiteracy and unemployment rates.

“This wealth has only benefited a few corrupt politicians and angered residents who are mostly young,” David Salimo, a retired Mozambican soldier who fled to the refugee camp after militants invaded his village, told the Washington Times. “These youth have organized militarily to challenge and control this natural wealth…And they have the support of the local population who are poor and feel marginalized.”

He was referring to people like Claudio Holande, who fled his home when militants attacked his village, looted and burned homes and crops. “It’s not fair at all. We have lived in poverty for a long time and yet we have a lot of natural resources,” said Holande, 45. “This wealth needs to benefit our people, not corrupt and selfish government officials.”

Meanwhile, outside governments are stepping up, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Pentagon has dispatched military advisors, and Portugal is also sending military help, while encouraging the EU to intervene. Human Rights Watch called on the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to take a stronger role in preventing the militants from growing in strength in Mozambique.

Twenty years ago, Americans and others shuddered at the thought of Islamic terrorists gaining strongholds around the world to spread their hate. In truth, little has changed – especially for those caught in the middle – between militants, mercenaries and government soldiers.

People like Teresa Joaquim, 35, who these days sits outside of her tent at Metuge refugee camp in northern Mozambique and waits for something to change.

When the militants came to her village, they killed her husband and kidnapped her 16-year-old son. She and her 15-year-old daughter were raped and tortured. “I will never forget what they did to us,” she told the Washington Times. “They killed every old man they saw, kidnapped the young men and mercilessly raped the women.”

Afterward, she and her remaining four children walked for seven days to reach the camp, where they struggle with shortages of food and clean water. The children don’t go to school.

Joaquim now wonders what comes next but she, like many of the other refugees here, is very clear about one thing: She doesn’t care about grievances over mineral rights or who is right and who is wrong. “We want peace in our region so that we can go back home,” she said. “The government should find ways to end the attacks so that we are able to live without fear.”