AU Calls for International Action Against Mozambique Insurgents

People carry bags of charcoal on the shores of the Paquitequete neighbourhood where boats arrived with people fleeing violence in Palma, Miqu

Addis Ababa. – The African Union yesterday called for urgent and coordinated international action after a jihadist attack that killed dozens and uprooted thousands on the northern Mozambican coastal town of Palma.

The jihadists captured Palma on March 24, ransacking buildings and beheading residents and forcing thousands to seek safety in surrounding forest.

Dozens have been killed, more than 8 000 displaced and many more are still missing following the coordinated attack seen as the biggest escalation of an Islamist insurgency that has battered Cabo Delgado province since 2017.

In a statement, AU chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said he “condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attacks”.

Expressing “utmost concern” at the presence of international extremist groups in southern Africa, he called for an “urgent and coordinated regional and international action”.

But Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday downplayed the latest attack as “not the biggest”, despite its unprecedented proximity to Africa’s single biggest investment project.

Speaking at the resort of Ponta de Ouro, on the border with the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal, where he was opening a new delegation of the National Social Security Institute (INSS), President Nyusi, in his first public remarks about the attack, said that, although it was not necessarily the largest raid in Cabo Delgado, it took on particular importance because of Palma’s proximity to major foreign investments.

“My appeal is simple. Let us not lose focus, let’s not become flustered”, he urged, “let’s deal with the enemy as we have been dealing, let’s deal with the enemy forcefully, as our defence and security forces are doing. Lack of concentration is what our internal and external enemies want”.

Cited by the independent television station STV, Nyusi declared “we must concentrate and advance”.

He assured his audience “we have been following, second by second, what our young people on the ground (i.e. members of the armed forces) have been doing”.

Total had already suspended operations and evacuated some staff in late December after jihadists launched a series of raids near its compound.

Mozambican military says it still in search for the insurgents that raided Palma. Though Mozambican television footage of the town shows that Palma is almost empty, the military says it believes some remain in hiding and are coordinating an operation to “flush them out”.

“They are small groups, often mixed with some remaining population that have been making these wear and tear shots at our forces. But, surely, there is not a large terrorist group in the village of Palma, I can assure you.” said Chongo Vidigal, Mozambique Defense and Security Forces Spokesperson

More than 5 000 people have reached safety outside Palma a week after it was besieged, the UN said on Wednesday, as thousands remained stranded. 

“As of yesterday afternoon there were 5,360 displaced people… who had arrived in Nangade, Mueda, Montepuez and Pemba districts,” International Organisation for Migration (IOM) spokeswoman Sandra Black  said on Wednesday.