Mozambique: Authorities detained 57 terrorist suspects in 2021

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Mozambique: Authorities detained 57 terrorist suspects in 2021

1:56 CAT | 28 Apr 2022

in file CoM

The Mozambican authorities detained 57 people in 2021 on suspicion of involvement in terrorism in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country, Attorney General Beatriz Buchili has announced.

“In connection with terrorist activity, 57 individuals were detained, of whom 46 were men and 11 women, ranging in age from 19 to 65 years of age,” Buchili told parliament during the attorney general’s annual report, which started on Wednesday and ends today.

Of those detained, 54 were Mozambican, one Tanzanian, one Ethiopian and one Burundian, she added.

“The fight against terrorism presupposes the prevalence of preventive measures over reactive ones, involving different segments of society, such as financial institutions and non-financial entities, religious denominations, community structures and civil society organizations,” Beatriz Buchili explained.

Meanwhile, institutions of justice opened 354 criminal cases for terrorism in 2021, against 13 in 2020, an increase of 341, the Attorney General reported.

Beatriz Buchili noted that terrorism is normally associated with other forms of organised and complex crime, such as drug trafficking, illegal exploitation of natural resources and crimes of an economic and financial nature.

“To deal with the crime of terrorism, we have created a work team, composed of magistrates and investigators, which is exclusively responsible for the investigation of cases concerning these related crimes,” she said.

Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique, is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), about 784,000 persons have been internally displaced by the conflict, which has killed about 4,000, according to the ACLED conflict registry project.

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops, with the support of Rwandan and later Southern African Development Community (SADC) troops, has recovered a number of areas from rebel control.

Source: Lusa