Islamists threaten Mozambique’s oil

LEFT OUT: MUSLIM YOUTH MISSING OUT ON RICHES

‘There are economic, social, political, as well as religious and security issues at play’.

An increasing number of attacks carried out by Islamist militants in Mozambique’s oilrich Cabo Delgado is threatening the country’s economy, with a potential $30 billion oil investment, and accompanying jobs, under threat.

The attacks are also disrupting the lives of civilians while creating a security and political threat.

Last week, seven people were hacked to death with machetes and their homes torched in the northern province that has experienced several similar attacks.

Since mid-May, 35 people have died in a series of brutal attacks, including beheadings, while hundreds of houses have been burned.

The attacks, which began in October when police stations in the north were attacked, have been carried out by Al Sunnah wa Jama’ah, also known as Al Shabaab but with no connection to the similarly named group in East Africa.

The group has between 350 and 1 500 members who are organised into small cells along the coast of northern Mozambique, says Eric Morier-Genoud, a lecturer in African history at Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland.

The US embassy in Mozambique has warned its citizens to leave the area while the UK has issued a travel warning. And according to analysts, the potential for an escalation in the conflict between the Islamists and security forces is significant.

Dr Liazzat Bonate, a historian at University of the West Indies in Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, points out that the socioeconomic ground is fertile for the Islamists to gain support among Muslim youth in the north, who are being left out of the incipient prosperity produced by the finds of oil, gas and other natural resources in Cabo Delgado.

“There are economic, social, political, as well as religious and security issues at play,” says Morier-Genoud. “Cabo Delgado province borders Tanzania and is home to 2.3 million people, 58% of whom are Muslim.”

Al Sunnah wa Jama’ah developed along similar lines to Boko Haram in Nigeria, which started as a religious sect and then transformed into a guerrilla group.

“They feel they’ve been marginalised for decades by migration into their area, a lack of economic development, and their neighbours’ political clout,” he said.

Bonate added that the problem may also be about class, race and exclusion.