Since 2017, more than 2 people, mostly civilians, have been murdered in northern Mozambique. Mercenaries, army and terrorists kill with impunity. A new report suggests the government could be involved.
Over the past three years, a civil war has plunged Mozambique's northernmost province into chaos. Tourism on tropical beaches has given way to violence in Cabo Delgado. The precariousness in the region has helped the terrorist groups Al-Shabab (al-Qaeda) and Ansar Al-Sunna (Daesh) to flourish there.
The end of the decades-long civil war in Mozambique did not bring economic progress. The new generation felt forgotten by political leaders.
And if the discovery of large natural gas reserves made it possible to envisage the eradication of poverty, gas multinationals like Total having started to set up projects, the jobs promised never arrived and many inhabitants were even driven out by local militias hired by Western companies.
The fighters, many of whom were young men who had embraced Wahhabism, waged protracted conflict throughout Cabo Delgado province. They were targeting civilians. Successive NGO reports describe a real terror inflicted by combatants in the villages of the north.
The stories of the survivors, slashed and left by the side of the road to warn others, freeze the blood. The militias usually give the villagers two choices: join them or die.
Overwhelming testimonies for power
Few journalists are able to travel to Cabo Delgado to cover the conflict. The few reporters who venture there risk kidnapping. Life in northern Mozambique is told simply by young women who were released or escaped combatants last month.
Five teenage girls arrived at the port of Nacala, walking for a week from an al-Shabab outpost. The girls said they were held captive for three years, forced to serve with fighters from terrorist groups. They would release them periodically when food ran out.
Mozambique's military does not appear to have taken advantage of the insurgents' weaknesses. Sent to the region to protect the villagers, many troops reportedly extorted citizens. Villagers also accuse the army of hiding when terrorists attack villages, removing their fatigues or dressing as women to escape violence. Videos are also circulating, showing soldiers summarily executing terrorists and villagers they suspected of helping them. These videos have been manipulated, assures the government, but Amnesty International considers them to be true. The NGO released a damning report for the government on March 2.
Terrorists, paramilitaries and multinationals
Since 2017, the press has designated, rightly or wrongly, terrorist groups responsible for the many massacres in Mozambique. Al-Shabab and Daesh share little or no public information, so until early March 2021, 17 deadly attacks have never been claimed. Amnesty International has therefore published a report accusing Al-Shabab and, to everyone's surprise, the South African paramilitaries hired by the gas companies, as well as the Mozambican government.
“The people of Cabo Delgado are caught between the Mozambican security forces, the private militia fighting alongside the government and the armed opposition group known locally as Al-Shabab - none of which respects their right to life or the rules of war ”, accuses Amnesty.
The report suggests that private security companies operating in Cabo Delgado are also terrorizing residents. South Africa-based company Dyck Advisory Group accused in Amnesty International report of indiscriminately shooting civilians, strafing them from helicopters and dropping bombs on them .
It's no surprise that mercenaries are present in a gas-rich area, where Total is operating $ 20 billion in exploration. But according to Amnesty International's report, it was the Mozambican government that signed the contract directly with Dyck. Dyck security personnel attacked schools, hospitals and huts in the villages, claiming to target fighters who were hiding among the villagers. Even today, Dyck refuses to respond to Amnesty International.