![]() ![]() But there is a growing feeling among some observers that the SADC has been slow to provide support to Mozambique. Northern Mozambique now risks becoming a regional center of Islamist extremism, and the security threat requires a coordinated response before it spills into the other SADC states. Meanwhile, opposition voices, such as the Democratic Movement of Mozambique party, have appealed to the government to declare a state of war in the region to elicit international support in fighting the shadowy insurgency. At first, some government officials denied the presence of jihadists. ![]() The government has long been secretive about the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, viewing the attacks as the result of local criminal activity rather than an external force. The government has long been secretive about the insurgency, viewing the attacks as the result of local criminal activity rather than an external force. Instead, it has dithered for years, allowing the militants to transform from a small movement into a much larger menace. The government says it has killed more than 100 insurgents in recent months, but it is hardly on top of the situation. The Mozambican army has moved to quell the attacks with the help of private military contractors, including Russia’s Wagner Group and the South Africa-based security company Dyck Advisory Group. “These are people who find themselves marginalized, who do not receive the benefits they should receive.” “For me, it does not make sense to speak of ‘jihadism,’” Yussuf Adam, a professor at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, told a local media outlet. Years of central government neglect, joblessness, and poverty have pushed the province’s disenchanted young people into the armed militias. In addition to Cabo Delgado’s rich mineral resources, the marginalization of its majority Muslim population has played a key role in stoking the fires of insurgency. More than 200,000 people have fled their homes as the violence spreads toward the southern part of the province. During the same period, 285 people were killed in extremist attacks-bringing the total number of all reported fatalities to more than 1,000 since the insurgency began. In the first four months of 2020, violent incidents in Cabo Delgado rose by 300 percent compared with the same period in 2019, according to estimates by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based crisis-mapping project. But SADC isn’t mounting a coordinated response to the looming danger. If the insurgency is not checked soon, it could spread throughout the region-threatening the peace and stability of the other member states. Mozambique shares borders with Malawi, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania-all members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a 16-country economic bloc collectively worth $721 billion. Multinational corporations such as ExxonMobil and Total invested in the area, but the rising insurgency presents a major risk: Their projects could stall if the violence continues to escalate. The violence in Cabo Delgado began in October 2017, several years after massive oil and gas deposits were discovered in the region. In April, an extremist group killed 52 people in the village of Xitaxi-the deadliest attack yet. Since 2017, militants have killed 700 civilians and also targeted security forces, destroying government infrastructure and seizing weapons from Mozambican troops. It is unclear if the extremist groups are connected and therefore difficult to determine who is behind which attacks. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, but extremists from Kenya and Tanzania and a homegrown group called Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama are also behind the rise in violence. Armed attacks by extremist militant groups in Mozambique’s oil-rich Cabo Delgado province have increased this year, sending a wave of panic through neighboring countries.
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