Catholic bishops

The Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM), which brings together Catholic bishops from around the country, said that “forgetting” of the population of Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, by the state powers is one of the causes of armed conflict in the region.  [Please see below, the full  text of the CEM letter of the brothers and sisters of Cabo Delgado, in Portuguese], 

“The cause of so much suffering has deep roots in the time when the population was forgotten,” the CEM said. The violence in Cabo Delgado is inflicting “atrocities” on the population in the face of the inability of the Mozambican government to stop the action of the armed groups that are carrying out attacks in the province, notes CEM.

“Our hearts are filled with sadness to know of so many atrocities being practised in your province,” the Mozambican Catholic bishops said. The violence in Cabo Delgado is forcing children to walk in the bush and seek refuge outside their homes, without food or any means of subsistence and with a bitter heart, they said.

ALSO READ: Watch: Pope Francis prays for Cabo Delgado at Easter Urbi et Orbi Message 2020 | Full text

CEM praised the solidarity of many families who live in safe areas, each of whom have given shelter at their home to more than 20 to 30 people forced to flee the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado province. The CEM is committed to mobilising aid from inside and outside the country for humanitarian assistance to victims of the armed violence in the province. The bishops praised the bishop of Pemba, capital of Cabo Delgado, Luiz Fernando Lisboa, for his constant alerts to the difficult situation in which the people of the province live.

Cabo Delgado, the Mozambican province housing the largest private investment in Africa for natural gas exploration has been under attack since October 2017 by insurgents, classified since the beginning of the year by Mozambican and international authorities as a terrorist threat. In two and a half years of conflict, it is estimated that at least 600 people have died and about 211,000 have been affected, being forced to take refuge in safer places, losing their homes, and other assets. The Catholic Bishops of Mozambique wrote a letter to their brothers & sisters of #CaboDelgado. They express their solidarity, say they do not know what is the cause of so much suffering (though they recognise it has profound roots), and they publicly support the Bishop of Pemba pic.twitter.com/B0lt3HjVPR

— Eric Morier-Genoud (@emorier) June 15, 2020

FILE PHOTO: Catholic Bishops of Mozambique  with Pope Francis  on 5 September 2019, during the Apostolic Journey of Pope Francis - Meeting of Pope Francis with Bishops, Priests, Religious, Consecrated and Seminarians, Catechists and Animators of Mozambique, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Maputo, 5 September 2019 . FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY:  [File photo: Rádio Pax - Emissora Católica da Beira / Facebook]]

Blair Institute calls for foreign military intervention

As well as technical support and training for the Mozambican police and military, "the international community should consider other forms of direct military assistance to Cabo Delgado," the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change said Wednesday (17 July). "For almost three years, the ISIS-affiliated extremist group Ansar al-Sunna has spearheaded an insurgency in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado," the report says, and argues that "in the context of Islamist extremism across the African continent, the situation is not unique." https://bit.ly/BlairCabo

"We see a strong risk of the security situation deteriorating further over the next 18 months unless a coordinated transnational effort is launched to assist national authorities to counter Ansar al-Sunna," the report continues. It recommends "The US, UK, EU and other actors provide technical support and training" to the Mozambican police and military.

The report puts overwhelming stress on outside Islamic involvement. But it admits the militant group "exploits Islam and local grievances to recruit members and uses its regional and global links to train and arm them. Ansar al-Sunna’s message has resonated with disgruntled youth in Mozambique. The group’s hard-line narrative positioned its idea of puritanical Islamic government as a panacea for decades of political exclusion, unemployment and poverty, which are more prevalent in the Muslim-majority areas of the north."

The Blair Institute argues that "Ansar al-Sunna is a home-grown insurgency amplified by transnational networks" that is now so strong that it requires external support "to counter and prevent Islamist extremism." But after seven recommendations on political and miitary intervention, it 's last recommendation is "support the government of Mozambique to address underlying socio-economic drivers of extremism in Cabo Delgado through targeted developmental, educational and vocational interventions."

Comment: Tony Blair has a history here. As Prime Minister of the UK, he used false claims of Islamic weapons of mass destruction to promote the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003. From 2001 to 2007 he strongly backed Gadaffi in Libya in order to gain his support against militant Islam in Africa and Afghanistan. Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan have never recovered and their wars continue.