4/29/2023 0 Comments World in conflict game insurgents![]() Following its retreat, the government turned to the South African Dyck Advisory Group, a mercenary group that Amnesty International has since accused of atrocities against local civilians. In 2019, Mozambique invited into the country members of the Wagner Group, the Kremlin-linked private military company, who quickly withdrew from a train-and-support mission after significant losses. Insurgency in Mozambique: A Local Stage with Global Actors In 2018, the insurgency opportunistically rebranded itself as ISIS-M it has since succeeded in cutting the world off from the African continent’s third largest natural gas reserves, located off of the Cabo Delgado coast. Widespread social discontent resulted in violent attacks against government and Western-affiliated targets such as banks, hotels, and a port. Despite ongoing investigations into grand corruption, foreign energy extraction began in 2017, led by France’s Total, US-based ExxonMobil, Italy’s ENI, and the China National Petroleum Corporation. But instead of investing in the national economy, revenues were diverted to a small group of government officials. The 2010 discovery of large offshore natural gas reserves in the Rovuma Basin led the government of Mozambique to draft optimistic plans for domestic economic development. ![]() As the birthplace of the country’s independence movement in 1979, the region was ripe for armed resistance against a corrupt central government. It is one of Mozambique’s poorest provinces despite rich reserves of natural resources. Cabo Delgado is a northeastern region of Mozambique bordered by Tanzania to the north and the Indian Ocean to the east. ![]() The insurgency in Cabo Delgado has emerged after years of corruption, human rights violations, and population displacement. The United States should also pay close attention: the situation in Cabo Delgado may foreshadow future conflicts in resource-rich regions of littoral Africa where foreign competitors jockey for influence.Ĭorruption Invites the Black Flag to Mozambique The United States should specify its national interests and integrate diplomatic pressure with security assistance to not only quell the insurgency but push the government away from the abusive tactics and corruption that fueled it in the first place. As the United States gets increasingly involved, it needs to understand the root causes of the conflict. Today, the Mozambican armed forces, with the aid of a multinational regional coalition, are still fighting to regain control of the region. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany’s halting of the certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and Russia’s threats to shut off gas supplies to Europe, the demand for natural gas across the global north has increased while Mozambique’s supply remains cut off from the world market. This localized insurgency, which drove the Russian Wagner Group out of the region in 2019 and caused energy giants Total of France and Saipem of Italy to cease liquified natural gas extraction projects last spring, also demonstrates the power of insurgents to influence global investment in developing markets. The violence inflicted on the region’s people only tells part of the story. The conflict has displaced over half a million people since 2017. Today, the insurgency terrorizes the region of Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, with tactics similar to Boko Haram’s razing of villages to capture sex slaves and youth fighters. The insurgency finances its operations through illicit resource trafficking and recruits fighters with the promise of small loans to young men without opportunity. Over the past five years, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria–Mozambique (ISIS-M), locally referred to as al-Shabaab (no direct connection to the Somali-based group), has organized an insurgency by leveraging economic grievances in a resource-rich, poverty-stricken region of the country. This increased security cooperation, which has made the United States the largest bilateral donor to Mozambique, comes as the southeast African nation attempts to contain a surging Islamic State affiliate. ![]() In October, the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams made a port call to the capital described by the US ambassador to Mozambique as indicative of the “ strength of the strategic partnership” with the United States. In March 2021, roughly a dozen US Army Green Berets arrived in Mozambique to help train the Mozambican armed forces. ![]()
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