Cabo Delgado attacks

Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, expressed his willingness to dialogue with the armed groups that have been carrying out attacks in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country.“Our brothers are being killed in some areas of Cabo Delgado by people about whom we do not know who they are or what they want. If they told us [who they re and what they want], we would sit down with these people so they can talk,” Nyusi said, quoted on Monday by the Mozambique Information Agency (AIM). Nyusi was speaking in Lago district, in Niassa province, during the inauguration of the new facilities of the Anglican Church. In his view, peace, a condition for development in Mozambique, should always be something under construction and all social actors should be involved in the process, including the churches.

“Let the bishop of Niassa call everyone to work for peace. Peace is a work that does not end,” he said.

In the region of Cabo Delgado (North) there have been attacks from armed groups since October 2017, after years of friction between Muslims of different origins, with violence reportedly erupting in radicalised mosques. At least 300 people have died in Cabo Delgado, according to official and population figures, and 60,000 residents have been affected, many of whom have been forced to move to other locations in search of safety, according to the United Nations. Since June this year, the jihadist Islamic State group has claimed some of the attacks, but authorities and analysts heard by Lusa have found it scarcely credible that there is genuine involvement by the terrorist group that goes beyond some contact with elements on the ground. The attacks affect districts close to the areas of natural gas exploitation projects and, in concerted actions with oil companies that build the largest natural gas megaprojects in Africa, the government has intensified the military response with logistical support from Russia, but the episodes continue and are disrupting the works on the Afungi peninsula.