Daily Times

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, a Catholic, 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 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 200 km (124 miles) 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 a 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 also received training.

Its capacity is limited so far, but it is rooted in conditions that mirror northeast 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.”

Huge gas reserves

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. But it has been enough for the United States and Britain to advise against travelling to the region.

Several killings have been reported about 20 km outside the town of Palma, from where energy multinationals are developing massive gas discoveries in the Southern African country.

Some of the companies are taking precautions as they develop projects involving investments expected to total about $50 billion, more than four times Mozambique’s GDP.

U.S. firm Anadarko, which is building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant near Palma, placed staff under “lock-down” due to security fears, a security source said. Canada-based Wentworth Resources said it had limited access to its onshore license site because of the security situation.

Exxon and ENI both said they are closely monitoring the situation. The companies plan to develop the Coral offshore gas field which is expected to start production in 2024. A final investment decision on an onshore LNG plant is planned for 2019. It was in Cabo Delgado that the liberation struggle against the Portuguese began in the 1960s, with fighters trained and sneaking across from Tanzania.

That victory, and the spoils of a 15-year civil war, enabled Frelimo, a party few Muslims feel represents them, to cement power. However, the new group does not appear to be linked to sporadic attacks in recent years blamed on Frelimo’s war-era opponents, Renamo.

Muslims make up 20 percent of the total population but more than half of Cabo Delgado’s 2.3 million people. The younger ones are increasingly angered by what they regard as broken promises of jobs from the offshore gas discoveries on their doorstep. Violence began in October, when around 30 people attacked a police station in the quiet fishing town of Mocimboa da Praia.

Two policemen died and one was seriously wounded as gunfire raged through the night. Bullet holes can still be seen in the wall of the base and the neighbouring petrol station store.

Published in Daily Times, July 26^th 2018.