Western media indifferent on war against terror in Mozambique

Since the Rwandan and Mozambican forces started a joint operation to fight the terrorists in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, commentators have questioned the silence - or little coverage - by Western media of the war.  The launch of the SADC mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) was not of much interest. The few Western media that tried to cover the war focused on the oil and gas in Cabo Delgado or distorted the cause of the war. 

The impression created is that the war is meant to enable the French oil company, Total, to return to the region to continue its oil and gas business. The return of thousands of displaced people to their homes and ending the suffering they have endured for years is conspicuously omitted yet the war is about the lives of the people in Cabo Delgado rather than  economic interests and the French involvement. 

For example, in a story covered by Joseph Hanlon for the BBC a couple of days ago, he mentioned that, “Rwanda says its troops are there as long as necessary and it is expected they will eventually create a security zone around Palma and the nearby gas installations. The hope is that Total would feel safe enough to return to work next year.”

The story misses to tell readers when more than 800,000 displaced people are expected to return to their homes and enjoy peace. The focus is on resources rather than the suffering people. The economic perspective by the West in Africa is the same since colonialism. They love Africa’s resources with no care for the lives of African people. 

Additionally, the BBC story tried to discourage sending SADC troops to fight the insurgents, distorting the problem in Cabo Delgado as a question of young people without jobs! “A few thousand jobs could end the war. But nations prepared to send expensive troop battalions will not pay to create no-questions-asked, long-term jobs,” Joseph wrote in his BBC article.

He further invents his own image of the insurgents who he claims are not terrorists but disgruntled youth without employment! “There is broad agreement that the uprising was begun by young people without jobs protesting about growing poverty and inequality, as well as the lack of any gains from mineral resources including rubies and gas.” Broad agreement with who? This is how Western “experts on Africa” like Joseph Hanlon decide to spin facts and mislead the world using the all powerful western media. 

However, Joseph admits a few facts that disprove his own narrative of the nature of insurgency in the Cabo Delgado region. The first is that he acknowledges that “the conflict zone is majority Muslim, and by 2019 the rebels had made contact with the Islamic State (IS) group.” By   association, with another terror group, it loses meaning for the BBC story to claim that the conflict is about disgruntled youth who lack jobs.

Secondly, he admits another crucial fact that, “The US has named them (Mozambican insurgents) "Isis Mozambique'' and designated them a foreign terrorist organization.” After this admission, trying to sanitize them as marginalized people  discredits the war as misguided.

This kind of coverage by Western media on Africa where facts are distorted or deliberately missed out is not new. Hanlon, described as a Mozambique analyst, looks at the conflict in Mozambique through the western lens for their own interest contrary to the facts on the ground. 

Those who are surprised by the indifference of western media coverage of the war against terror in Mozambique, should know that what is happening in Cabo Delgado is about Africa and Africans not about the west. Why do Africans want foreigners to tell their own story for them to complain later that the story was badly told?   

African media should tell the African story and shape the narrative rather than waiting for Africa to be covered by western media. “Africans expecting fairness from Western media are the problem,” an African political analyst observed.  

I commend the African media for the good coverage about the war in Mozambique, to show that African problems can be solved by Africans themselves without relying on Western intervention.  What is more important is the spirit of Pan Africanism and cooperation. Africa should build its own strong media network to tell its own story. For the Western media I would not be surprised in the coming days to read stories talking about human rights abuse in Cabo Delgado. The news about Africa should be bad news. That’s the known Western editorial line on Africa.