After losing large territories it once held in Iraq and Syria, ISIS seems to have shifted its strategy and focus on local militant groups in Africa that have pledged allegiance to the terror group. An ISIS faction that split from Al-Qaeda branch in East Africa is also growing in Somalia and now a militant group linked with Islamic State is fast establishing foothold in Mozambique.
Credible open sources reports indicate that the militants affiliated with the Islamic State terror group have stepped up attacks against security forces and civilians in the troubled northern region of Mozambique.
In recent weeks the ISIS affiliated group has claimed several attacks signaling imminent surge of the group’s activities in Mozambique. This week, ISIS through its pro-media, Amaq News Agency announced that its affiliate in Central Africa had killed nine soldiers from the Mozambican army in the province of Cabo Delgado.
Mozambican local news agencies also have reported of clashes between the country’s security forces and the jihadists in Cabo Delgado in the Muslim-majority region. Since 2017, Islamist insurgents have carried out deadly attacks against the military and civilians in Cabo Delgado, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands.
UN has recorded at least 28 attacks, carried out in Cabo Delgado since the beginning of the year. The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), has warned of possible refugee crisis in the coming months citing that the armed group has been randomly targeting local villages and terrorizing the local population. Cases of beheadings, kidnappings and disappearances of women and children are increasing, the refugee agency adds.
The violence has so far displaced more than 100,000 people throughout the Cabo Delgado province, UNHCR said.
ISIS Presence and Regional Spillage
In recent years, there have been several radical militant groups waging attacks in Cabo Delgado. Ansar al-Sunna, has been responsible for dozens of terror attacks against civilians and government forces in northern Mozambique. This group locally is known as Al-Shabaab and also goes by Ahlu al-Sunna and Swahili Sunna. With links to ISIS, little is known about Ansar al-Sunna and its political objectives in Mozambique.
ISIS declared its so-called Central African Province, known as ISCAP in April 2019. Attacks linked to its Central African Province affiliate have been limited to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Strategic Intelligence (SI) warns that ISIS is with no doubt rebuilding its networks and is increasing its operational tempo in East and Central Africa. The militant group will continue to seek out weak countries with weak security forces, and Africa is now a continent ripe for ISIS expansion.
ISIS may view Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province as a perfect launching pad from which to spread throughout the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Tanzania and Kenya stands at a high risk of the ISIS spillage from Mozambique.
