Police do not confirm authenticity of Islamist video – AIM report

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Police do not confirm authenticity of Islamist video – AIM report

11:05 CAT | 01 Feb 2018

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The Mozambican police have declined to confirm the authenticity of a video that has been circulating on social media for the past week and which purports to show members of the islamist group that has launched raids in the northern province of Cabo Delgado urging others to join its ranks.

The video, which lasts for two minutes and 18 seconds, shows a group of five men in civilian dress, their faces covered with headscarves. Four of them are brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, while the fifth is clutching a machete.

Speaking in Mozambique’s official language, Portuguese, one of the men declares that the aim of the group’s armed attacks in the Cabo Delgado districts of Mocimboa da Praia, Palma and Nangade is to establish a world that follows the laws laid down in the Koran.

He claims that the group’s cause has divine support, and will therefore be successful, and invited all “Mozambican brothers” to join the group in its fight against “the demon” which is supposedly obstructing “the laws of Allah”.

The group was demanding “the Koran as law and religion as the government”.

Questioned about the video on Tuesday, at his weekly press briefing, the spokesperson for the General Command of the Mozambican police, Inacio Dina, could not confirm the authenticity of the video, much less the identity of the men it shows.

Dina urged citizens to exercise vigilance and keep calm when faced with supposed information on social media which may have been posted there just “to manipulate public opinion”.

“Social media are a platform which many ill-intentioned people use”, and that could be the case with this video, he said.

“We are not saying that what circulates on social media is false”, he added. “As for this video, we do not confirm its authenticity or origin, or the identity of the people it shows. Mozambique is not the only country where Portuguese is spoken”.

In other words, the police can neither confirm nor deny that the armed men shown in the video really are members of a group known in Cabo Delgado as “Al-Shabaab”, but more correctly named as “Al-Suna”.

The most serious attack by the Islamist group occurred on 5 October against three police installations in Mocimboa da Praia district. Subsequent incursions have also hit targets in the neighbouring districts of Palma and Nangade.

Dina insisted that currently the situation throughout Cabo Delgado is under control, and that the defence and security forces are continuing to ensure the safety of residents of the province.

Source: AIM