ISIS-linked rebels in Mozambique a threat to SA security

NICOLA MILTZ

“This is of massive interest to us,” says Jevon Greenblatt, Gauteng director of the Community Security Organisation (CSO). “We are monitoring this very closely. It’s a big issue, not only for our community, but for the entire Southern African region.

“We have watched the movement of Islamic extremists from the Middle East to North Africa and then into Central Africa. It has now crossed the Central African line into Southern Africa. There is a slow shift downwards, but I believe it will pick up momentum.

“For the first time in history, South Africa now has a very real threat just north of our border. It can’t ignore it,” Greenblatt says.

Insurgents have been staging brutal attacks in Mozambique’s northernmost gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, but the violence has escalated in recent months causing concern in the region.

The South African government is discussing the provision of assistance to fight the Islamist insurgency that has now established strong links to ISIS. Naledi Pandor, the minister of international relations and cooperation, said recently on SABC, “Our governments are in discussions as to how we might lend support from our own resources as South Africa.”

Bilateral talks between South Africa and Mozambique followed a South African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 19 May, where the Islamist insurgence was discussed. SADC members were urged to offer regional support to Mozambique after it admitted that its state security forces were struggling to contain the situation.

The insurgent, Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah (ASWJ), which has formal affiliation with ISIS – is waging war on civilians and state interests.

Darren Bergman, the Democratic Alliance shadow minister of international relations and cooperation, says the government needs to act fast. “Minister Pandor admitted on SABC that our borders with Mozambique are porous, and we should remember that most people with ill-intent don’t usually come in through the grand entrance,” Bergman says. “South Africa needs to protect its borders, SADC [members] need to mobilise and help one another, and the African Union needs to formulate an immediate strategy.”

Terror expert Jasmine Opperman of ACLED (The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project) told the SA Jewish Report that the situation in Mozambique was worrying.

“We are sitting with an insurgency that was born and bred out of a history of local discontent with the government and its neglect of communities and youth. Extremist voices came in to play as far back as 2010 encouraging a violent response. In 2017, we saw the first wave of violent attacks in the remote north and an insurgency in motion.”

She says the insurgency became more sophisticated as it grew, exploiting widespread anger at the failure of central government to distribute earnings fairly from exploitation of the region’s rich natural resources.

“The discontent was exacerbated by corruption, the military’s heavy-handed response to the violence, and the commission of human-rights abuses,” she said.

“Where there’s an insurgency, that’s where Islamic State steps in and hijacks the narrative, running the propaganda,” says Opperman.

“For the first time in the history of this specific area, the Islamic State is busy creating a presence within an insurgency by converging the local narrative with its own extremist ideology. We are sitting with governments completely unfamiliar with this type of threat,” she says.

Militants have stepped up attacks in recent weeks as part of a campaign to establish an Islamist caliphate in the gas-rich region.

They have seized government buildings and blocked off roads. They are known to hoist a black-and-white flag carrying religious symbols over towns and villages across Cabo Delgado province. The flag is also used by ISIS and other Islamic extremists.

According to ACLED, the insurgents have so far mainly targeted isolated villages, killing more than 1 000 people. The unrest has caused hundreds of thousands to flee.

“At the moment, there is no indication of expansion beyond Cabo Delgado, but there is another underlying risk,” warns Opperman. “We know we have IS thinkers and sympathisers on home soil. There is the risk of IS propaganda accelerating recruitment initiatives in South Africa. The question is, are we ready for lone-wolf type attacks? This is a serious concern.”

She is concerned about whether the insurgents could prompt local sympathisers of ISIS to act on its behalf.

The Thulsie twins have allegedly demonstrated a willingness to carry out acts of violence on home soil on behalf of the extremist organisation. They were apprehended while allegedly planning terrorist attacks on the United States Embassy in Pretoria, as well as unnamed Jewish institutions across South Africa, in response to perceived actions by Israel and the US against Islamist militant groups including ISIS across the world.

Self-proclaimed local ISIS supporters Sayfudeen Aslam Del Vecchio and Fatima Patel are accused of murdering British-born botanists Rodney and Rachel Saunders in KwaZulu-Natal in 2018.

Says Greenblatt, “It’s widely believed that the border between South Africa and Mozambique is porous with little control. We are concerned that young individuals are becoming radicalised online especially during the lockdown. They are watching the ills of the world, experiencing unemployment, loss of income, and life is becoming more hopeless. This may drive them to look for the nearest radical Islamic group to join.”

In April, more than 50 people were massacred in an attack in Xitaxi in Muidumbe district after locals refused to be recruited to the insurgent’s ranks, according to police cited by local media. Most were either shot dead or beheaded.

In March, the insurgents briefly occupied the centre of Mocímboa da Praia, a district headquarters, burning government facilities including a barracks, and brandishing banners of affiliation to ISIS.

Pandor voiced concern in January when she issued a stern warning about attacks by militants affiliated to ISIS in Cabo Delgado.

It “has raised concerns about an IS presence in new territories where it has drawn allegiance from local militant groups,” she said. “We should be worried, given that the attacks on Mozambique point to the presence of IS in the [SADC] region.”