Mozambique
Map of Mozambique
Mozambique continues to rise in the Peoples under Threat table as the Islamist insurgency in northern Cabo Delgado province has grown significantly more deadly through 2020–21 and drawn international military training and assistance from several Western and African countries. Yet overstating the connections of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamma’a with ISIS – as has been done with a US terrorist list designation – portends further militarization and worsening cycles of resentment and violence. Securitization alone will not address the essentially local grievances fueling the conflict, rooted in state incapacity, corruption and extreme economic deprivation in an area where Africa’s three largest natural gas deposits enrich only Mozambican elites and multinational corporations. Militants and state security personnel continue to perpetrate an array of rights abuses against civilians, and while more than 800,000 people remain displaced in the north, in central Mozambique a splinter group of the opposition RENAMO has rejected a peace deal with the government while periodically attacking civilians in recent years.