Cabo Ligado Weekly: 6-12 December
By the Numbers: Cabo Delgado, October 2017-December 2021
Figures updated as of 10 December 2021.
Total number of organized political violence events: 1,090
Total number of reported fatalities from organized political violence: 3,594
Total number of reported fatalities from civilian targeting: 1,574
All ACLED data are available for download via the data export tool and curated data files.
Situation Summary
Violence continued last week on both the southern and western fronts of the conflict in northern Mozambique, as both local and international pro-government forces moved to counter recent insurgent attacks.
On 6 December, local militia members near Nkoe, Macomia district killed four insurgents in a firefight that reportedly lasted five hours. Locals later identified one of the insurgents as a young man from Nova Zambezia, a nearby village that insurgents attacked most recently on 3 December. They believe the young man was working as a guide for the insurgency, and that the group who fought with local militia at Nkoe were likely responsible for the 3 December attack on Nova Zambezia. Indeed, a local source reports that the insurgents at Nkoe were ambushed while preparing food that appears to have been looted from Nova Zambezia.
Two days later, attacks continued in the Mecula district of Niassa province. Insurgents struck about five kilometers south of the district capital, in Lichengue, on the evening of 8 December. An elderly woman was killed in the attack, and over 80 buildings were burned. The Islamic State (IS) appeared to claim the attack in a vague statement, saying that insurgents burned “dozens” of homes in Niassa province.
The same day, in nearby Chimene, insurgents attacked and killed a young man. His body was left mutilated at the scene of the attack. IS also claimed the Chimene attack, asserting that insurgents clashed with Mozambican soldiers, killing one and burning an army vehicle before destroying homes in the village. Despite the proximity of the attacks to Mecula town, no government forces were reported on the scene until the next day, and there are no confirmed reports of engagements between pro-government troops and insurgents in the area.
Also on 8 December, locals near Mucojo in eastern Macomia district discovered 12 bodies they believed to be insurgents killed in a recent engagement with troops from the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Standby Force Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM). Officials from SAMIM have not confirmed that the clash took place, but those who found the bodies speculated that it took place on 6 December.
On 9 December, according to the same report, SAMIM forces captured five insurgents after an engagement in which many other insurgents escaped. The report places the clash in “Litingima,” Macomia district, but the more likely location is Litingina, Nangade district.
On 10 December, insurgents conducted a night attack on Kiwengulo, a village in Tanzania’s Mtwara region, just across the Ruvuma River from the Pundanhar area of western Palma district. Insurgents killed four civilians -- beheading three people from a single family and looting their home before shooting another young man dead. The attackers demanded that locals lead them to the homes of village officials, but were interrupted by the arrival of Tanzanian military forces. In the ensuing firefight, five insurgents were killed and one Tanzanian army vehicle was destroyed.
Incidents also came to light last week that do not have a clear date associated with them. In a speech on 12 December, Mozambican police chief Bernardino Rafael became the second major national official to publicly acknowledge insurgent attacks in Niassa province, following a short statement two days earlier by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi. According to Rafael, the first insurgent incursion into Niassa was in Mavago district, west of Mecula, where there were clashes between insurgents and Mozambican police. Rafael offered no further details on the incident, but it is possible that he was referring to the 20 August 2021 ambush of a Mozambican police vehicle on the road in Mavago district. The attack, which was not confirmed to be the work of insurgents at the time, resulted in the death of one member of the police and injuries to others.
Rafael also claimed that police responded to the initial attack by destroying a small insurgent encampment, the date and location of which he did not specify. In a subsequent patrol, according to Rafael, Mozambican forces entered into combat with insurgents and killed an insurgent leader from Mecula district he called “Cassimo.” Neither the date nor location of that engagement was made clear. The leader to whom Rafael was referring appears to be Maulana Ali Cassimo, an insurgent commander profiled in a Rural Environment Observatory (OMR) report on insurgent leadership from 10 August, 2021. According to OMR researchers, Cassimo worked as an agricultural extension officer in Mecula between 2014 and 2017 before leaving for Mocimboa da Praia to join the insurgency. Before leaving Mecula, he became known as both an extremely committed Muslim and a fiery advocate for artisanal miners in Niassa province, who he saw as being unfairly repressed by the Mozambican state. His advocacy for miners -- an issue less pressing in the coastal areas where the insurgency was born -- is indicative of the distinct political grievances driving insurgent recruitment on the western edges of the conflict zone.
In Sanga district, west of Mavago, a letter written in Portuguese was found, purporting to be from insurgents. The letter threatened attacks in Mecula, Mavago, Sanga, Lago, and Muemba district in Niassa province, beginning on 5 December. It is not clear when the letter was first discovered, but locals largely ignored it until attacks in Mecula district began to pick up.
An investigation by Carta de Mocambique that came out last week offered new details on both the internal structure of the insurgency and the government’s efforts to prosecute those associated with the group. Carta obtained documents showing that the Mozambican government indicted four Muslim clerics based in Pemba on charges of supporting the insurgency. Charges have since been dropped against two of the four, for lack of evidence, but the other two remain in custody awaiting trial. The investigation also found that police believed Bonomade Machude Omar, the man widely reported to lead the insurgency, was hiding out in the Paquetiquete neighborhood of Pemba as late as 2020.
The article also describes a man known as “Amisse Mucuthaya,” a Tanzanian who worked as a bus driver for Nagi Investimentos in Cabo Delgado and Niassa, as a key figure in the insurgency. Police reportedly found cash and weapons behind a false wall in Mucuthaya’s house, and believe that he distributed weapons for the insurgency in the run up to the conflict. Mucuthaya also reportedly traveled to Tanzania frequently, acting as a link between the group in Cabo Delgado and supporters to the north. Police had Mucuthaya in custody at one point but, according to the investigation, he was able to escape after paying a bribe.
Incident Focus: Gender-Based Violence
Two major reports on gender-based violence in Cabo Delgado were released last week, highlighting the heavy cost that women have paid in the course of the conflict. According to the reports -- which confirm the findings in earlier work on the topic -- sexual violence against women is a major component of the insurgent way of war, as is the trafficking and sale of women. The reports also highlight the inadequacy of the government’s response to the widespread experience of sexual violence for those caught in the war.
The first report, from Human Rights Watch (HRW), puts the number of women and girls kidnapped by the insurgency since 2018 at over 600. Drawing on secondary reports and extensive primary interviews, the report details a system in which insurgents target young women and girls to be abducted by the group and forced into marriages with insurgent fighters. Abductees who were not coerced into longer term relationships with fighters were also often raped, and some escapees reported becoming pregnant as a result of the assaults, a source of major social stigma once they leave insurgent custody. In addition to enduring sexual abuse, women abducted by the insurgency were also forced to work for the insurgents, including cooking, cleaning, and agricultural tasks.
HRW also noted that insurgents trafficked women abductees, both within the group and outside it. Foreign fighters in the group paid between $600 and $1,800 to “purchase” women, while some women’s families were able to arrange ransoms for their release, usually around $15,000. The study confirms earlier work from OMR, which reported that insurgents trafficked women and girls into Tanzania as a way to raise money.
In addition to detailing the insurgency’s extensive crimes against women, the HRW report examined how the Mozambican government has treated women and girls it has rescued from insurgent custody. Rescued civilians are often kept against their will by government forces for “security checks” that last multiple weeks. During these checks, rescued civilians are not allowed to interact with their families. This form of extended captivity risks further traumatizing people who have already endured horrors at the hands of insurgents. One woman, who was captured and raped by insurgents and then escaped with a nine year old girl who had also been raped and who she is now raising as her own daughter in Macomia town, said that her only interaction with authorities has involved police interrogating her about her experience in search of intelligence about the insurgents.
The second report, a collaboration between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, focuses on both the threat of abduction for women and girls in the conflict zone and gender-based violence faced by those who have been displaced by the conflict. The report includes accounts of armed groups involved in the conflict raping girls and boys, and highlights the extent to which underreporting of these assaults prevents a full accounting of the violence inflicted over the course of the conflict. It also draws on interviews with people who serve displaced populations in Cabo Delgado, who recount widespread sexual coercion of displaced women and men by spouses, officials, and host community members with the power to control their access to aid.
These reports underline both the magnitude of the violence and trauma northern Mozambicans continue to suffer as a result of the conflict, and the particular vulnerabilities faced by women in the conflict. With the Mozambican government and international humanitarian agencies still struggling to meet displaced people’s basic survival needs, the obstacles to providing adequate support for people who have suffered gender-based violence are substantial. The reports make clear, however, the extent of the trauma many have faced and the necessity of support to allow survivors to move on with their lives.
Government Response
Much as it did in Cabo Delgado, the beginning of the insurgent campaign in Niassa province has involved forced displacement. The attack last week at Lichengue resulted in the destruction of over 80 homes, and earlier attacks in the province have also left many without a roof over their heads. The destruction of these houses, along with the general sense of fear in Mecula district, has led to significant displacement in the district. According to an International Organization for Migration (IOM) document, as of 4 December, 682 people had fled to the Mecula district capital and were being housed in a school there.
Since then, insurgents have struck within five kilometers of Mecula town, and many civilians have fled the district altogether. According to a press report from 12 December, 520 people are now staying at the Mecula school, despite further displacement in the district. IOM rated the need for food, shelter, clean water, and basic cooking and sleeping implements as “very high” in the 4 December document. The Mozambican National Institute of Disaster Management is guaranteeing food for those housed at Mecula for the next month, and is in the process of providing tents, shelter kits, and other aid.
On the other side of the conflict zone, however, some displaced people from Quissanga district have begun to return home. One hundred and fifty men from Bilibiza returned to their homes on 3 December to begin cleaning the town in preparation for a larger-scale return of civilians to the area. They found much of the town overgrown, but indicated that they intended to remain there permanently. They were joined by another convoy of civilians on 9 December.
For people both displaced in and returning to the Palma area, the evidence that it is being set up to run as a protected enclave continues to grow. Last week, the Mozambican navy issued a declaration that its patrols have made the coast of Cabo Delgado “safe” from insurgent threat. The statement explicitly said that the purpose of the patrols is to ensure that natural gas projects, based in eastern Palma district, can move forward.
New details appeared last week regarding the government’s plan to encourage displaced people in Cabo Delgado to take up agriculture near their host communities. Provincial Secretary of State António Supeia visited Montepuez district last week, and spent some of his time inspecting land meant to be allotted to displaced people for farming. There had been a delay in transferring control of the land, as it turned out that other people were living on the land. Supeia was told that plans by local institutions are already underway to move the “illegal squatters” to make room for displaced farmers. These delays, however, indicate the obstacles in the government’s effort to match large displaced populations with limited arable land. If widespread further displacement is necessary to make room for those displaced by the conflict, relations between displaced people and host communities are likely to deteriorate further.
On the international front, South African Deputy President David Mabuza defended his country’s involvement in the SADC mission in Mozambique last week, after facing questions from parliament. Mabuza said that the intervention is justified by the threat the Cabo Delgado conflict poses to stability in the region, both in the form of an expanding insurgency and in the form of increased numbers of refugees entering South Africa.
President Nyusi travelled to Dar es Salaam last week for Tanzanian independence day celebrations. While there, he gave a speech to Mozambicans living in Tanzania, urging them to cooperate with authorities in their counterterrorism efforts. He also noted Tanzania’s record of preventing Mozambicans fleeing the conflict from entering the country, but did not explicitly criticize the practice.
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