Mozambique: 43 people, three gangs connected with Islamic State on national list

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Mozambique: 43 people, three gangs connected with Islamic State on national list

7:43 CAT | 18 Jul 2023

File photo: O País

Mozambique’s Attorney General’s Office has placed 43 individuals suspected of crimes in Cabo Delgado on the national terrorism list, including six Tanzanians, along with three organisations linked to the extremist group Islamic State.

The Attorney General’s Office list, which includes an order of 12 July, seen on Tuesday ny Lusa, signed by the deputy attorney general of the Republic, Alberto Paulo, appears in the context of the “initiation of criminal proceedings, identification, detention, prosecution, trial and conviction of some individuals for terrorism and related crimes”.

Among the 43 individuals on this list is Tanzanian Abu Yasir Hassan, who, according to the Attorney General’s Office information, “serves as one of the leaders of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Mozambique” and who became “leader” of an “extremist Islamic sect and rebel group” in the country “around October 2017”, joining the Islamic State “around 2018/2019”.

The Attorney General’s Office added that Abu Yasir Hassan was designated in 2021 as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the US State Department “due to his activities in Mozambique and his known links to the Islamic State” and that in April 2023, he was included by the Council of the European Union (EU) on the sanctions list for “responsibility for terrorist attacks and serious human rights abuses”.

Among the 37 Mozambicans on this list is Bonomade Machude Omar for, according to the Attorney General’s Office, being “one of the leaders of the group operating in Mozambique, as well as the link with the outside world” and the “main coordinator of all attacks carried out” in the country. It added that in August 2021, he was designated as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the US State Department and that in April 2023, he was included in the EU sanctions list for “responsibility for terrorist attacks and serious human rights abuses”.

In the same order, it said that since October 2017 Mozambique, “with emphasis on the province of Cabo Delgado, has been the target of terrorist acts” and that “since then, the Defence and Security Forces and the Judiciary have taken coordinated actions to prevent and combat the phenomenon, which resulted in the initiation of criminal proceedings, identification, arrest, prosecution, trial and conviction of some individuals for terrorism and related crimes”.

“Still others, although identified, have not been held criminally responsible, as they are in an uncertain part”, explains the order, alluding to the designation made with this list under the law establishing the legal regime for preventing, suppressing and combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which allows such classification even in the absence of a criminal investigation, prosecution or conviction.

The majority of the 43 individuals on the list with known residence between northern Mozambique and Tanzania, and previous occupations as farmers, fishermen or vendors, mainly under the age of 30, have been charged, tried and convicted for committing offences of aggravated homicide, use of prohibited weapons, association to commit offences, against public order and tranquillity, against state security and public instigation in Cabo Delgado.

According to the legislation, the national list is the list of all persons, groups and entities designated by the Attorney General of the Republic of Mozambique as foreign terrorist fighters, financiers of terrorists and terrorist organisations.

The national list also includes the Ansar al-Sunna group, which since “late 2019” belongs to the so-called Islamic State in Central Africa Province, according to the OPG led by Abu Yasir Hassan and Bonomade Machude Omar, whose sources of funding are “illegal smuggling, religious networks and human traffickers, which the group uses to send recruits to Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia”.

“The group was formed in Cabo Delgado by followers of the radical Kenyan cleric Aboud Rogo Mohammed (now deceased). The group carries out attacks on security forces and civilians in an attempt to establish an Islamic state in some districts of Cabo Delgado,” reads the order.

Also included in Mozambique’s national list of individuals and organisations linked to terrorism are the Islamic State in Central Africa, an “administrative division of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, a Salafist jihadist militant group and proto-state not recognised by the international community”, as well as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Cabo Delgado province (northern Mozambique) has faced an armed insurgency for five years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

The insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021 with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged south of the region and in neighbouring Nampula province.

The conflict has already displaced one million people, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and claimed some 4,000 lives, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.

Source: Lusa