Mozambique: War against terror a global concern

Rwandan President Paul Kagame, on September 5, said troops from Rwanda and Mozambique got lots of information on the nature and composition of the terrorists who call themselves “the Caliphate army” in Mozambique’s Province of Cabo Delgado.

Kagame’s revelation came barely two months after reports of the stunning defeat the armed forces of Rwanda and Mozambique inflicted on the Islamic State (IS) terrorists who had earlier wreaked havoc in Cabo Delgado, a Province three times bigger than Rwanda, for the last four years.

“Our forces have managed to get a lot of information...got a lot of documents and communications of these people. We are informed they had already secured Cabo Delgado, taken it over, and they were planning to move to another Province called Niassa,” Kagame said.

The Rwandan leader noted that the information they have indicates that the terrorists come from several countries in the region, including his own Rwanda. He said: “We’ve found that they come from different places including Rwanda. There are Ugandans, Congolese, Tanzanians, Burundians... in that place, terrorists come from different countries.”

His revelations pointed to the fact that regional countries – and others from afar – need to move fast and determinedly so as to thwart the threat before it gets worse. If left to spread further, the group’s activities would not threaten Mozambique’s national stability alone. It could present the terrorists with a new front to exploit and thereby cause instability in East Africa’s coast, and beyond.

People in eastern Africa were again reminded of the lurking threat when, mid last month, a man believed to have been a terrorist killed four people, three police officers and a private security guard, in the embassy district of the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam before being shot dead.

On March 10, the US indicated that ISIS-Mozambique, also known as Ansar al-Sunna (and locally as al-Shabaab in Mozambique), among other names, reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS as early as April 2018, and was acknowledged by ISIS-Core as an affiliate in August 2019. 

The terrorists publicly swore allegiance to IS, giving credibility to the idea that theirs is part of a global jihadist movement that required a determined regional  and international effort, to deal with.

“Since October 2017, ISIS-Mozambique, led by Abu Yasir Hassan, has killed more than 1,300 civilians, and it is estimated that more than 2,300 civilians, security force members, and suspected ISIS-Mozambique militants have been killed since the terrorist group began its violent extremist insurgency,” read part of a media note on the US State Department Terrorist Designations of ISIS Affiliates and Leaders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique.

When, on August 6, Antony Blinken, the United States Secretary of State, announced the designation of five terrorist leaders in Africa, Bonomade Machude Omar, also known as Abu Sulayfa Muhammad and Ibn Omar, leader of the Military and External Affairs Departments for ISIS-Mozambique was top on the list. Omar, according to the US government, serves as the senior commander and lead coordinator for all attacks conducted by the group in northern Mozambique, as well as the lead facilitator and communications conduit for the group. 

During the March attack on Palma, Omar led one group of fighters while Abu Yasir Hassan, the leader of ISIS-Mozambique, led another group of fighters. Omar also led the attack on a Hotel in Palma.  In these attacks, the terrorists massacred peoplr including locals and expatriates, leaving decapitated bodies strewn around the streets.  Omar was also responsible for attacks in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique, and Mtwara Region, Tanzania.

In April, Mozambican President, Filipe Nyusi, flew to Kigali where he requested his Rwandan counterpart to provide his country with military support to help fight off the IS-linked insurgents who had terrorized Cabo Delgado, cutting off some of the country's vital cities and seaports for years.

Kagame explained that when Nyusi requested for support “to work together to deal with this situation, we found we had it in our means to do it.” Sometimes, the Rwandan leader who has also successfully sent troops to help the government of the Central African Republic battle a cocktail of militias noted, “it doesn’t require much as people think.”

“It just requires people determined, well-resourced to a certain level and which we thought we had.” Kagame refuted claims in the media that Rwanda received external support – especially financially – to execute the operation in Mozambique. “I want to make it clear. We are using our means. We have decent means which we are also ready to share. There is nobody who sponsored us for this.”

The outcomes and cause of the mission, he noted, are “much bigger than the money we’ve spent.”

Kigali started deploying its 1,000 troops to Cabo Delgado on July 9, having understood that lack of concrete action could have turned the entire region of Africa into an unstable region.  After one month, the Rwandan and Mozambican military recaptured much of the territory, including Mocímboa da Praia, a vital seaport that served as the terrorist headquarters, as well as their critical supply route. The joint forces also routed the insurgency from more than 90 percent of the Cabo Delgado territory they earlier occupied.

People who were forced to abandon their homes and businesses by the Islamists are now leaving internally displaced peoples' camps enmasse and are reclaiming their property as life gradually returns to normal in Cabo Delgado.  Earlier, more than 826, 000 people had been displaced and hundreds more killed by the terrorists.  All economic activity in the region rich in natural gas had come to a standstill.

Besides halting the operations of the liquid natural gas (LNG) facility in the region, the immediate economic damage also impacted on future investment as, for example, ExxonMobil reportedly delayed its final decision about investing in the region.

“I hope, and hope the Mozambican are hoping that these people come back to work because that means a lot to their economy and to their development,” Kagame said, also noting that different Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have also promised to come and help Mozambique and there are signs that there is good cooperation to get the job done.

On August 9, SADC inaugurated a regional military mission to help Mozambique in the fight against the terrorists. The SADC forces were to operate together with Rwandan and Mozambican forces. President Nyusi and Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi who is also the Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, launched the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) at an event in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province.

“We (Rwanda) are just one of the many and we are doing our part. The others, I am sure, will do their part and together we can do better, more. Some troops from SADC countries have arrived. Others, maybe, are expected soon or later,” Kagame said.

“So far, in fact, there has developed good cooperation. There is working together- the Rwandan contingent there and the force that is there is having a form of coordination and working with those troops from SADC. They’ve been talking. They’ve been meeting. There is some level of coordination. I am sure there is more work to be done on that, which they will do.” Kagame’s comments indicate that there is hope.