They also held the city of Quissanga, approximately 120 km further south, for about 48 hours, raising their flag before retreating to evade a large-scale confrontation with the Mozambican army and its foreign backers. Four months before, in March 2020, they briefly took Mocimboa da Praia, where the insurgency originated and which has seen more than 30 attacks from the group since 2017. This was not the first time Islamist militants succeeded in taking control of territory in Mozambique, however. After the group’s successive losses in the Levant, it came as a shock to analysts and policymakers that the Islamic State was once again capable of controlling territory-jeopardizing the outlook for stability in Mozambique.
Tore Hamming, of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College, details the group ’s successes in Mozambique and the problems the government there has had fighting the group.Īlthough the militant Islamist insurgency in Mozambique has been brewing since late 2017, it was only when Islamic State-affiliated militants captured the northeastern port city of Mocimboa da Praia in Cabo Delgado province in mid-August 2020 that it gained the world’s attention.
Editor’s Note: The Islamic State has suffered significant losses in recent years, but Mozambique-far from the heartland of its former self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria-is a rare bright spot for the group.
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