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The armed groups that have attacked villages and settlements in northern Mozambique are partly commanded from Tanzania and serve to protect illegal trafficking of resources in the region, according to a study presented yesterday in Maputo.
Some members of the groups will have received training abroad, with militias with links to terrorist groups such as Somalia’s Al-Shabaab, the study says, in the first systematic inquiry into the relationship between the violence of recent months and such organisations.
The illegal trade networks which the armed groups facilitate raise funds in the order of one million Euros in a week in the traffic of timber alone, but they also traffic coal, rubies and ivory, according to researchers João Pereira, Salvador Forquilha and Saide Habibe.
Together, the three authors of the study on “Islamic Radicalisation in Northern Mozambique” conducted 125 interviews during three stays in the province of Cabo Delgado after the attack on the village of Mocímboa da Praia on October 5, 2017.
At least in the “first phase”, the aspiration to “establish an Islamic State” seems to have been set aside, the motive being, rather, “seeking to create business opportunities for the dominant elites of informal businesses in that region of Cabo Delgado” and thus “feeding national and international interests within the illicit business”, the study asserts.
“The first objective [of the armed groups] is to create a situation of instability in the region to enable the illicit business in which the leaders are involved” and then “from these businesses to feed other networks with which they have links, for example militias in Congo, Somalia and Kenya, as well as Tanzania,” says João Pereira.
The trafficking networks also include elements from Vietnam and China.
Armed groups use the money to support their men and families, scattered throughout rural Cabo Delgado – who thus have access to income levels rare in the area – as well as to attract new recruits and pay for the mobilisation missions of alleged religious leaders from Tanzania.
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Illegal trade routes also serve as a basis for smuggling weapons by boat along the coast and motorcycles on land. (Witnesses claim to have heard motorcycles in the woods at night before the attacks.)
“These are processes with their epicentre in Mocímboa, but with ramifications in several districts,” Pereira said, which is “it is difficult to see where the command is”. He calls for more studies to be carried out in the region.
Without in-depth knowledge, it will not be possible to combat the organised crime offensive that Pereira says has arrived in Mozambique as part of a North-South migration of organised crime across the continent.
Authorities in Mozambique say that the situation is under control, and the prosecutor’s office has charged 234 defendants with possession and use of prohibited weapons, qualified homicide and mercenary practices.
João Pereira and Salvador Forquilha have degrees in Political Science from the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo, and represent the Foundation for the Support of Civil Society (MASC) and the Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IESE) respectively.
Saide Habibe participated in the study as a specialist in Islamic affairs in Mozambique.
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