Attacks mark new Islamist threat in rural Mozambique

CHITOLO, Mozambique: Anastacio Talene Nakupenda woke to the sound of gunshots as a dozen men burst from dense forest to attack his remote Mozambican village, torching homes, stealing food and decapitating one of his neighbours.

“I was left with nothing, completely naked,” Nakupenda said outside his partially rebuilt home in Chitolo, northern Mozambique, from where he had run for his life while five men armed with machetes set the mud and wood walls alight.

Initially dismissed as isolated acts of banditry, attacks like the one on Chitolo in March are increasing.

An emerging pattern suggests the potential beginnings of an Islamist threat in Cabo Delgado – an impoverished province on the border with Tanzania, where companies are developing one of the biggest gas finds in a decade.

The group goes by the name of Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama or “followers of the prophetic tradition”. In common with Boko Haram in Nigeria, it touts a radical form of Islam as an antidote to what it regards as corrupt, elitist rule that has broadened gaping inequality.

Since October more than 100 people have been killed, often by decapitation, in 40 separate attacks, in villages up to 200km apart, according to local news site Zitamar.

The targets are usually remote villages and attacks are carried out with machetes, though the occasional shooting and the recent use of a basic explosive device have been reported.

Researchers have found the Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama leadership has links to Islamist groups in Tanzania, Somalia, Kenya and the Great Lakes region where some have also received training.

Its capacity is limited so far, but it is rooted in conditions that mirror north-east Nigeria a decade ago, when Boko Haram began recruiting young men angry with stark inequality and perceived religious discrimination.

“It’s similar to how Boko Haram started,” said historian Joao Pereira, co-author of the most comprehensive study on the group. “All the conditions are there for this situation to worsen.”

While Boko Haram morphed from an anti-establishment movement into one of the world’s deadliest Islamist groups that has killed more than 30 000 people, northern Mozambique’s remoteness and a lack of funding for militants are brakes on the violence, security experts say. – Reuters/African News Agency (ANA)