Where does the violence in Cabo Delgado come from? ? What is the origin of the Mozambican Shebab established in the north of the country? And who benefits from this Islamist guerrilla warfare? These are some of the questions posed by a report entitled Jihad in Mozambique : Actors, interests and perspectives written by former MEP Paulo Casaca, who taught at the University of the Azores.
In Jihad in Mozambique : Actors, interests and perspectives, the Portuguese MP and academic Paulo Casaca synthesized a large number of fieldwork carried out in Mozambique by local researchers.
He returns to the gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado, which has been plagued since 2018 by attacks by armed groups that have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group. These attacks were marked by massacres, beheadings, burning of villages and kidnapping of children in order to transform them into jihadist fighters. The brand of IS terrorists according to Paulo Casaca, who recognizes the practices already seen in the Syrian caliphate. In his eyes, this proves that since 2018 the movement is no longer strictly speaking Mozambican, even if before this date there were a few groups of Islamist preachers who advocated the establishment of Sharia in northern Mozambique.
The violence in this predominantly Muslim region, bordering Tanzania, has already killed 3,500 people and forced 820,000 people to flee their homes.
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The report also points to the weakness of the Mozambican state at the time and its strong corruption, which would have favored the rise of criminal activities. Paulo Casaca publishes for example a diplomatic telegram from the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Maputo dated January 25, 2010 which indicates: “Mozambique became the second African entrepot for drug trafficking in Africa, with the barons of this trade having close ties to the government and the ruling party of the time (Frelimo). The main gateway to the heroine is, since at least 1993, the port of Nacala located in the province of Nampula.”
According to former MEPhe widespread corruption at all levels of power facilitates the task of the jihadists, “since all police or customs controls are ineffective and more likely to be circumvented with fairly modest bribes, even in the most important places to thwart jihad such as Mocimboa da Praia”.
“The map and timing of jihad development in Mozambique and Tanzania has clear coincidences with those of gas exploitation in the region.”
Paulo Casaca, former MEPin his report “Jihad in Mozambique”
The Mozambican Al-Shabaab began targeting the Total project by seizing the town of Mocimboa da Praia in August 2020 and attacking Palma in March 2021, where the employees of the French group which had a huge project to extract offshore gas, now suspended. These attacks forced the TotalEnergie group to stop its mega gas project in Cabo Delgado, involving tens of billions of euros, while Mozambique could have become one of the world’s largest gas exporters.
But who can have an interest in curbing the French group’s projects in the region, which represent enormous financial resources for Mozambique? Paulo Casaca suggests that Qatar has no interest in seeing such a competitor emerge, particularly in the extraction of liquefied natural gas (LNG), in which it is the world No.1. “I discovered that environmental organizations linked to Qatar are carrying out campaigns to demonstrate that the gas projects in Mozambique are catastrophic for the environment and for the local populations. Curiously, these campaigns are widely relayed by the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera”, emphasizes Paulo Casaca. According to the former teacher at the University of the Azores, these same NGOs almost never criticize such important projects in Qatar.
The report also states “the good relations established by the Qatari authority either with Al-Shabaab in Somalia or with its dissent from the Islamic State, and its ability to use them in the defense of its economic interests“. The report further asserts that “The war for leadership in the global LNG market is well and truly at stake.”