Cabo Delgado: Nyusi warns of existence of terrorist financiers in cities

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Cabo Delgado: Nyusi warns of existence of terrorist financiers in cities

7:30 CAT | 02 Jul 2024

Photo: Presidente Filipe Nyusi / Facebook

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said on Monday in Beira that people financing the armed groups carrying out attacks in Cabo Delgado are “in the cities” of Mozambique including in Maputo, the country’s capital.

“Those terrorists there in Cabo Delgado eat, get equipment to kill people and where do they get the money? In the few times that they manage to open their mouths during investigations, they don’t point to [financing] sources there [in Cabo Delgado]. These are sources that are in the cities, including the city of Beira and Maputo,” the head of state said during the inauguration of courts in Sofala, central Mozambique.

Filipe Nyusi called for everyone to engage in the fight against terrorism in northern Mozambique, noting that it was not the responsibility of the Defence and Security Forces alone.

“We need to be attentive. We cannot think that terrorism will be fought only with the young people from the Defence and Security Forces on the ground. That’s not enough. We need to start working here to nip its activity in the bud,” the president stressed.

On August 22, 2022, Nyusi had denounced gas station owners in Sofala province, central Mozambique, for laundering money to finance terrorism in Cabo Delgado.

Yesterday, during his speech, Nyusi mentioned that, in the aftermath of this denunciation, some gas station owners had fled Sofala province.

“As a result [of the denunciation], we started to see people abandoning the gas pumps and running away. I don’t know what happened. Sometimes, people have a heavy conscience about what they do,” the head of state said.

The Association of Fuel Dealers and Retailers in Mozambique (AROMOC) expressed surprise at the President of the Republic’s suggestion that operators in the sector have been financing armed groups in the north of the country.

Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado has faced an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist group Islamic State.

The last major attack took place on May 10 and 11, on the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents looting the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambique Defence and Security Forces.

The population of other districts of the province has reported the movement of these groups of insurgents, who cause panic as they pass, in the forests, but without any record of clashes, which happens at a time when peasants are trying to carry out harvesting work in the fields of cultivation.

The President of Mozambique stated on June 16 that the action of the various defence forces made it possible to eliminate “practically all” the bases of terrorist groups operating in Cabo Delgado, which are now limited to “walking around in the bush”.

Source: Lusa