The Government of Mozambique has stated that jihadist groups «do not have permanent bases» in Cabo Delgado province (north), the epicenter since 2017 of a spike in attacks by terrorist groups, including Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA).
«We can say that there are no permanent bases of terrorists,» said the Mozambican Minister of Defense, Cristovao Chume, before indicating that the jihadists are divided into small groups that have lost their positions because of the operations of the security forces.
Chume’s words came after two people were killed Monday in an attack by suspected jihadists in Balama, in southern Cabo Delgado, according to the Mozambican news portal Carta de Mozambique. The two victims were beheaded in the village of Marica.
According to these reports, the men were abducted with their wives while they were working in a field. The two women were later released and reported to the authorities that their husbands had been beheaded by the attackers.
At the end of September, the chief of the Mozambican police, Bernardino Rafael, asked the population of Cabo Delgado to «resist» jihadist attacks with «knives» or «machetes», in view of the increase in insecurity in this area of the African country.
The Mozambican authorities have highlighted during the last months an improvement of the security situation in the area due to the joint operations with the Rwandan special forces and the troops deployed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Cabo Delgado has been the scene since October 2017 of attacks by Islamist militiamen known as Al Shabaab, unrelated to the eponymous group operating in Somalia with ties to Al Qaeda. Since mid-2019 they have been mostly claimed by ISCA, which has stepped up its actions since March 2020.
