[DW] The insurgency in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province is spreading to neighboring regions, according to a new study. This comes despite the intervention of SADC and Rwandan troops.
Mozambique's al-Shabaab militia, whose name comes from the Arabic for youth and which has no relation to Somalia's al-Shabaab terrorist group,
... actually, they hired members of Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab to train them in jihadi skills, explaining the local nickname. Since 2018 they’ve been known formally as Islamic State Central Africa Province-Mozambique (ISCAP), whence they moved in 2015 from the Congo, where they had called themselves Ansar al-Sunna (supporters of the tradition), more formally as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamah (ASWJ, adepts of the prophetic tradition). Originally led by Abu Yasir Hassan of Tanzania (also known as Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim), who moved between Mocimboa da Praia and jihadis in the Congo until 2015, when he may or may not have died. Al Shabaab-Mozambique funds itself through heroin, contraband, ivory, raiding, and selling the local girls into slavery... has been carrying out brutal attacks in the nation's most northern province, Cabo Delgado,
.. known for coal and ruby mines, natural gas, and jihad... since 2017.
Continued from Page 2
The Islamic turbans have now taken control of entire areas of Cabo Delgado and have expanded their operations inside and outside of Mozambique, according to a new joint study by the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime and the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Germany.
This comes despite the deployment of troops from Rwanda and the Southern African regional bloc, SADC, to help Mozambique's military fight the armed uprising, Julian Rademeyer, one of the study's lead authors, told DW.
The study, "Insurgency, Illicit Markets and Corruption: The Cabo Delgado Conflict and Its Regional Implications" was published on Thursday.
SURGE IN ATTACKS
In the past week alone, turbans have attacked at least eight villages in Cabo Delgado, completely burning down five of them on the border to Tanzania, the Catholic Denis Hurley Peace Institute told Germany's Catholic news agency, KNA.
According to Rademeyer, the study's authors are "already seeing some of the elements of al-Shabaab scattering to other provinces and renewing attacks and violence."
The group is said to be responsible for recent attacks in Niassa province, which borders Cabo Delgado to the west, as well as in Nampula province to the south.
In addition, al-Shabaab has strengthened its networks outside of Mozambique, said Rademeyer, an organized crime expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime. He said this could have long-term consequences for other countries in southern African region.
The group has links to forces allied with the so-called Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
 ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo , which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
and has also recruited fighters from neighbors Tanzania and South Africa, he said.
ALLOWING CRIMINAL GROUPS TO FLOURISH
By increasing the general lawlessness of Cabo Delgado, al-Shabaab's gains in the province have spurred the growth of illicit trafficking through northern Mozamique.
"Cabo Delgado province serves as a key economic corridor and has historically for hundreds of years," Rademeyer said.
"But it also serves as a key corridor for illicit trafficking flows," he said, especially for the smuggling of heroin and amphetamines.
Heroin comes from Afghanistan through Iran
 ...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
to northern Mozambique and onward to neighboring South Africa, the largest consumer market for heroin in the southern African region and a major transit point for trafficking to Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
and the United States.
Cocaine, primarily originating Brazil, also passes through northern Mozambique to Australia.
On top of this, people, illegally logged timber, wildlife products, precious stones and gold move through Cabo Delgado.
ROBBERY AND EXTORTION
According to study, al-Shabaab itself only participates directly in a small way in the illegal trafficking.
Rather, the group finances itself by demanding protection money from local businesses and looting cash, weapons and goods during attacks. The terrorist group also raise funds through kidnapping and demanding ransoms for people's release.
Rumors abound that al-Shabaab harvests organs from people it captures in attacks and then trades these on the international market.
The study found absolutely no evidence of this, Rademeyer said. Rather, he said, the rumors are probably an example of how disinformation spreads within the conflict zone and how this disinformation can be used as a propaganda tool by Mozambique's government. 
|
