Good afternoon. Why, after a period of relative calm, are insurgents being seen in many different parts of Cabo Delgado province all of a sudden? Last month saw a series of insurgent attacks in Palma district, as we report today, and on Sunday they carried out a raid in the town of Mocímboa da Praia. Palma is home to the big gas project led by French energy firm TotalEnergies, and Mocímboa da Praia district is next door. For that reason, both are heavily guarded by Rwandan and Mozambican security forces. But this protection did not stop the insurgents from getting through, again and again. In Mocímboa, according to the district administrator Sergio Cipriano, the insurgents had enough time to methodically go from house to house searching for specific targets by name. Four townspeople were dead before they left.
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Beyond those northern districts, sources have reported seeing insurgents in increased numbers in parts of the districts of Quissanga and Montepuez in recent days. Those numbers still need to be confirmed, but what is clear is that the insurgents are not afraid of being seen. This can only strengthen the suspicion that their activities are timed to coincide with the anticipated resumption of the gas project, which was suspended over four years ago due to the insurgent threat. Both the government and much of Mozambique’s business sector have been calling for and keenly awaiting that to happen. The insurgents know this, and they might well want to sabotage it. A show of force in districts further away from the project could potentially be intended to draw security forces away from protecting it, or to just increase the general sense of insecurity. More information is needed before making any firm conclusions about what the insurgents are up to.
