[imagesource: YouTube / Carte Blanche]

The March 2021 attack on the Mozambican town of Palma, by insurgents from a local Islamist organisation called Allu Sunna wa Jama, or al-Shabaab, or ISIS-Mozambique, made international headlines.

In the days and weeks that followed, horrific stories of trapped families trying to escape the insurgents were widely covered, along with the heroism of unarmed boats that plucked civilians off beaches and coastal islands.

Attacks continued into the later months of last year and reports surfaced again last month that beheadings had resumed.

Carte Blanche, in a segment aired this past Sunday, actually showed blurred images of hacked-off arms, torsos, and heads strewn throughout the area’s rural villages.

The insurgents are gaining ground and there are ever-present rumours of our links to those responsible for these atrocities:

Cabo Delgado is in its fifth year of a brutal insurgency linked to the Islamic State, and there appears no end in sight despite the deployment of troops from other countries in Southern Africa, including our own.

Mozambique’s northern province has become a byword for terror that’s seen tens of thousands flee, villages destroyed, and civilians brutally killed. As a new wave of merciless violence crashes over communities, we ask: what’s fuelling this seemingly endless reign of terror? Who is funding the insurrection? And just how removed is South Africa from the Islamic State’s desire to spread fear and devastation?

With experts claiming they’ve uncovered evidence of high-level training and support from within our borders – Carte Blanche investigates rumours of local links to IS.

A warning that there are graphic images (albeit blurred) and descriptions of brutal violence in the video:

For those of you who enjoy a long read, and this one may well take you 45 minutes or so, I would highly recommend “I’m Still Alive but Sh*t Is Getting Wild”: Inside the Siege of the Amarula.

It’s an incredible look at the bravery of 200 or so people, holed up in a hotel and under attack from rebels last March, told in a no-holds-barred manner.

[source:carteblanche]