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The last time we spoke about the situation in northern Mozambique, and particularly in and around the Cabo Delgado province, there was little to celebrate.

ISIS-linked groups like Ahl al-Sunnah wa al Jamma’ah, or ISIS-Mozambique (known locally as al-Shabaab), continued to terrorise civilians, although they weren’t the only ones.

An Amnesty International report also accused South African mercenaries hired by the Mozambican government of “indiscriminate helicopter attacks”, which killed innocent civilians, with some harrowing stories from eyewitnesses.

In short, the situation is dire, and the Mozambican government needs help, which is now arriving in the form of a dozen US Army Green Beret special forces, who are involved with training Mozambican marines in a two-month programme.

The Daily Maverick reports:

The move indicates a greater commitment by the new Biden administration to the fight against the Islamic State-linked insurgency than that of the previous Trump administration.

Last week Washington formally designated the insurgency — which it named Isis-Mozambique — as a global terrorist organisation and imposed sanctions on it and its leader, whom it named as Abu Yasir Hassan.

If you’re thinking it’s a selfless act by the US government, you may want to think again.

The threat posed by the insurgents to the huge natural gas reserves in northern Mozambique has probably helped motivate the growing US involvement in the conflict. The US oil and gas corporation Exxon-Mobil has major concessions in the Rovuma offshore gas fields, along with France’s Total.

Public beheadings and burning villages to the ground is one thing, but threaten US business interests and here come the Green Berets.

John Godfrey, the US Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism, says the US will also provide financial assistance to the Mozambican government to finance counter-terrorism, as well as focusing on ways to cut off the terrorist funding, which is linked to the country’s drug trafficking syndicates.

US involvement hasn’t been met with universal acclaim, and those sanctions may prove more of a hindrance than a help:

…the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last week criticised the Mozambique sanctions measures in particular, saying they risked impeding humanitarian efforts in Cabo Delgado and hobbling potential disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) activities.

It said the sanctions were unlikely to significantly advance US counterterrorism and counterinsurgency efforts, in part because it said the insurgents probably did not own any assets in the US which could be sanctioned.

Whilst there may not be a solution at hand that satisfies all parties, it’s obvious that action needs to be taken, with further reports of the atrocities taking place emerging by the week.

[source:dailymav]