Amnesty International warns of the widespread violence against civilians that is occurring in Mozambique, in the province of Cabo Delgado. The NGO cites as “latest evidence of atrocities committed” a video that “provides insight into what is happening away from international media attention in this forgotten war,” in this northern part of Mozambique where the regional force of the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (Samim) has been intervening since 2021 to help the state fight rebel jihadist troops.
The incident, which appears on this viral video, very shared since Tuesday January 10, would have taken place in November 2022. We see men in military uniforms throwing corpses into a fire where at least one other body is already burning. One pours liquid over the remains. Others, including at least one member of the South African National Defense Force (SANF), watching and filming the event. The SANF acknowledges in a statement issued on January 10 the presence of some of its soldiers, and a regional investigation has been opened: “The culprits will be brought to justice,” said the South African military.
Jihadist guerrillas have been threatening northeastern Mozambique for five years
Since 2017, the province of Cabo Delgado has been the scene of an Islamist insurrection by a group that calls itself locally “the chebabs” (“the young people” in Arabic). The militia, affiliated with the Islamic State (IS), has no known operational relationship with the group “the chebabs” in Somalia and recruits mainly locally. The deadly attacks, rapes, beheadings, fires, kidnappings, as well as the fighting with the Mozambican army have already caused more than 6,000 deaths, according to the count of the NGO Armed Conflict Location and Even Data Project (Acled), as well as the displacement of almost a million people.
The Samim, with a thousand Rwandan soldiers but also armed forces from several neighboring countries in southern Africa, enabled the Mozambican government to recover territories last year. But the insurgents continue to destabilize some pockets in the far north-east of the country and are spreading into neighboring Niassa province in Tanzania, widening the risk of joining other IS networks in East Africa. East. Although international aid has increased in recent months, the region of Cabo Delgado remains difficult to access for humanitarian organizations.
The Mozambican State seeks to reassure its investors
Since the country’s independence in 1975, power has been in the hands of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), the dominant political party. The internal conflict threatens national stability and the government is working to reassure its investors about its progress in the fight against the jihadists. Its gas fields discovered in 2010 off the northern coast are now the fourth largest in the world behind those of Qatar, Russia and Iran. They have already attracted several giants in the sector, including TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil, which have halted the start of their production. The Italian company ENI made its first delivery of liquefied natural gas from the Coral gas field, offshore.
Mozambique received financial support from the United States and the European Union in 2022, which in September released $15 million to Samim. The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, traveled to the country for the occasion and reminded the government of its obligations to uphold human rights in its fight against terrorism. For the first time in its history, Mozambique has had a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council since January 1.