Mozambican army eliminates two senior insurgent leaders

The Mozambican army has killed two senior insurgent leaders including a vice commander, the country’s defence force announced Wednesday.

“The terrorist Abu Kital, who occupied the position of deputy commander of operations for the terrorist group Al Sunna Wall Jammat, was shot down” the Mozambique defence forces (FADM) said in a statement.

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Ali Mahando who “held important positions within the terrorist group” was also killed it said.

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MOZAMBICAN ARMY

Mozambique’s gas-rich northernmost province, Cabo Delgado, is struggling with an insurgency waged by militants linked to the Islamic State group.

According to the FADM, the defense force and security authorities were ambushed by members of the insurgent group in a district of the troubled province when their vehicle “overturned on a bridge, and then caught fire”.

Security forces “escaped unharmed” and the insurgent leaders were killed in the ensuing clash, the armed forces said.

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The army statement wasn’t clear on when the incident took place, but other reports suggested it happened on Tuesday.

The insurgency erupted in October 2017 when fighters — since proclaimed to be affiliated to IS — attacked coastal areas in northern Cabo Delgado, close to the Tanzanian border.

In the five years since that first attack, at least 4,737 people have been killed, nearly half of them civilians, according to conflict tracker ACLED, and around a million have fled their homes.

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ATTACK

Since July 2021, thousands of troops from Rwanda and the SADC regional bloc have deployed to shore up the Mozambican military and have since helped retake control of much of Cabo Delgado.

There has been a lull in jihadist attacks in the area since the deployment of foreign troops, despite occassional low-level attacks.

TotalEnergies paused its $20 billion LNG project two years ago after a deadly raid on Palma, a coastal town and gas hub.

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In May, Mozambique’s president Filipe Nyusi said conditions were right for work to resume, but TotalEnergies is yet to commit to restart the project.