African securityIslamists in Northern Mozambique Announce Plans for a Caliphate

In the past two weeks, the jihadists who have been spreading terror in the far north of Mozambique have carried out a series of spectacular attacks – but also, finally, made public their objective: to establish a caliphate in northeast Mozambique, and impose strict Islamic law within it.

The jihadists briefly occupied the chief towns of three districts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado. The Mozambican security forces, aided by private security companies, were unable to fight back.

For a few hours, the cities of Mocimboa da Praia, Quissanga, and Muidumbe were occupied by dozens of armed men who destroyed police stations, public buildings, and infrastructure, before broadcasting the images on social networks.

“They destroyed the hospital and stole the medicines, burned the petrol station, attacked the bank and looted the ATMs,” a Muidumbe police official said this week on condition of anonymity. “Then they raised their flag on the hospital and left to attack the neighboring villages.”

Local sources have reported casualties among the populations, although these claims could not be verified by independent sources.

The police and the army, as usual, refused to confirm or discuss these operations.

Last week, for the first time since the jihadists launched their operations in the predominantly Muslim region in northeast Mozambique in October 2017, the “al-shabab” explained their objectives.

“We want everyone here to apply Islamic law,” one of their spokespersons, armed and armed, launched to the people of Mocimbao da Praia in a video. “We do not want a government of non-believers, we want the government of God.”

The responsibility for the escalating wave of terrorist attacks has been claimed on the internet by the Islamic State group, through its branch in the “Central African Province” (ISCAP). The claims of responsibility were accompanied by a confirmation of the shift in the military and media strategy of the jihadists.

“We now know the face of several insurgents who attacked Mocimboa da Praia on 23 March 2020 (…) they belong to the group which attacked the city in October 2017,” explains Eric Morier-Genoud, of the university from Belfast.

“We also now know their ultimate goal,” he adds, “to establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law.”

Until then, these groups had never appeared in the open and concentrated their attacks on the civilian populations, massacred, beheaded and sometimes kidnapped, and their villages, systematically burned.