Islamists seize towns in energy rich powerhouse of Mozambique

FOR more than two years the insurgents waged a war so shadowy that no one really knew why they were fighting it or what they called themselves. They seemed to come out of nowhere, bands of masked men who attacked villages in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, carried out mass beheadings, and then vanished as mysteriously as they had appeared.

But in the past few weeks, everything has changed. No longer masked, the militants seized important towns and villages in a series of sophisticated operations under the noses of a Kremlin-linked Russian mercenary outfit.

Unfurling the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in southern Africa for the first time, the fighters defiantly declared their intention to turn a region that will soon be vital to Britain’s energy security into a Sharia-based caliphate.

Until recently, Cabo Delgado’s insurgency had garnered little attention in Western capitals. But the latest attacks and the threat they pose to what is becoming one of the world’s most important gas regions are changing that.

Cabo Delgado should be one of the richest regions in Africa. Not only does it host the world’s largest ruby mine, it is also the site of a £44 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) programme – the continent’s largest energy project – that is being developed by some of the world’s biggest oil companies.

With investment in the LNG project set to double over the coming decade, Cabo Delgado is turning Mozambique into an energy superpower. As Britain’s

North Sea reserves dwindle, the UK is among those queuing up for a share.

Last year, Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, entered into a joint venture to buy 2.6million tonnes a year of LNG from Mozambique for the next two decades.

However, the mostly Muslim population of Cabo Delgado have seen little of the wealth. The region is by far the least developed in Mozambique and its 2.3 million people are the poorest, making some ripe for recruitment.

Mozambique’s government last year deployed 200 Russian mercenaries to Cabo Delgado but they were swiftly forced to make a “tactical retreat”. Success against the Russians seems to have emboldened the militants further.

Amid a collapse in oil prices and economic uncertainty unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic, the escalation in the insurgency is making Western energy companies increasingly anxious.

The reaction to the jihadist occupation of some towns, with many locals coming on to the streets to cheer for them, will do little to settle their nerves.

But popular support may also be rooted in fear. “When armed men come, instead of defending the population, the police flee,” said Viana Magalhaes, a senior opposition politician.

“If a group of insurgents can take control of a whole province, then the country has no protection.”

♦ Mozambique yesterday expelled one of Brazil’s most wanted criminals, an alleged drug lord who has been on the run for two decades. Gilberto “Fuminho” Aparecido dos Santos was sent home on a Brazilian air force plane, the authorities said.