Mozambique: We need to restore order after rebel attacks in north – minister

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Mozambique: We need to restore order after rebel attacks in north – minister

4:27 CAT | 24 May 2025

Screen grab: Ministério do Interior - MINT

Mozambique’s Interior Minister Paulo Chachine acknowledged on Friday that it is necessary to restore order in the face of ‘unrest’ caused by new attacks by alleged terrorist groups in the north of the country.

“When there are situations of disorder, when there is unrest, what we have to do, what has to happen, is to restore tranquillity, to restore order,” the minister told journalists in Maputo after presiding over a ceremony marking the transfer to the reserve of 1,027 officers of the Mozambique Police.

“It is difficult to know that we have reached the end of the fight against terrorism. The fight is never declared over and I have never heard anyone in any country say that we have concluded the fight against terrorism,” Paulo Chachine added, arguing that terrorism “is not something that can be fought in a day,” but rather a “long process.”

In addition to the resurgence in recent months of attacks in some districts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, where several suspected terrorists have also been detained by the defence and security forces, at the end of April there were at least two attacks in the neighbouring province of Niassa, with two people killed.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks in Niassa through its propaganda channels, stating that it had killed three people.

On 16 May, an official source at the Russian Embassy in Maputo confirmed an alleged attack on a Russian oceanographic vessel, the Atlantida.

According to the source, the 62-metre-long ship, which was conducting marine research, was returning to the port of Maputo when, at around 3 p.m. local time (2 p.m. in Lisbon) on 10 May, it was attacked more than three miles off the coast of Tambuzi Island in the Quirimbas archipelago.

When confronted by journalists about this case, the Minister of the Interior said that investigations were underway to clarify the matter.

However, hours earlier, government spokesman Inocêncio Impissa said that the Mozambican authorities were investigating the alleged attack that took place on 10 May off the coast of Cabo Delgado, north of Mozambique.

“At this moment, investigations are ongoing and as soon as there are concrete results and we confirm what actually happened, the government will, with complete transparency, provide clarification to the public and the international community,” said Inocêncio Impissa at a press conference this morning in Maputo.

The Russian ship has since docked in Maputo and continued on to Durban, South Africa.

When questioned by journalists, Inocêncio Impissa also said that the government had not received formal notification from the Russian embassy regarding the incident, but added that Mozambique was already investigating the alleged attack and was ‘committed’ to security in its territorial waters.

Local sources have already linked this incident to attacks by terrorist groups operating in that region, which, if confirmed, would be the first of its kind on the high seas against a foreign vessel.

Since October 2017, the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State, which have displaced more than one million people.

In addition to Cabo Delgado, the neighbouring province of Niassa was also the scene of attacks by members of these groups in April, who beheaded two forest rangers, while Islamic State claimed responsibility for the deaths of three people in an attack in the same area.

In 2024 alone, at least 349 people died in attacks by Islamic extremist groups in the province, an increase of 36% over the previous year, according to data recently released by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, an academic institution of the US Department of Defence that analyses conflicts in Africa.

Source: Lusa