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For decades a forgotten corner of Mozambique, Cabo Delgado has now become the country’s El Dorado, promising billions in natural gas and gemstones, but delivering only violence and displacement to its population.
An insurgency in the province now threatens to take hold further: 50,000 people have fled their homes since March and Mozambique’s neighbors are currently debating sending regional forces to help defeat the militants who seized a strategic port in the city of Mocímboa da Praia last month.
The fear is that such action could alienate a population with serious grievances, despite the chaos caused by the militant group linked to Isis Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamaa, known locally as al-Shabaab (although it has no ties to the better known Somalia- militant Islamist group of the same name).
Cabo Delgado has spent decades underdeveloped. Even the past decade’s dual discoveries of $ 50bn (£ 38bn) in natural gas and rubies selling for hundreds of millions of dollars only brought displacement and misery to the local population.
“There is a lot going on around him. One side of them is al-Shabaab [militants]On the one hand there are the government forces that also use violence against them, and on the other side there is the issue of land. There is nowhere to get food, clothing, shelter, “said Estacio Valoi, an investigative journalist from Mozambique.
“The issue of violence did not start today or with this conflict. It’s a cocktail. “
Those who have fled Cabo Delgado in the past six months bring the total number of displaced people in the region to more than 200,000 (10% of its population) since 2017, when Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamaa launched an insurgency. More than 1,000 people have died in the last three years.
The latest attacks have added to an already desperate situation for residents, who are still trying to recover from the destruction caused by cyclone Kenneth last year. More than a fifth of people do not have enough food. Many are forced to seek refuge with relatives and stretch shared resources. The prices of fuels and staples such as rice and corn have risen.
This year’s fighting has seen many humanitarian groups withdraw from the region. Agencies say they can only access some of the worst areas by air, river or sea, and that rural areas have been practically abandoned due to Covid-19.
Over the past 10 years, local people say the government has forcibly evicted entire communities from state lands after awarding ruby exploration, mining and gas concessions to private companies.
Human rights activist David Matsinhe said that due to the absence of government services, people have lost access to the lands on which they depended for food, shelter and income due to the expansion of mining and gas extraction. , while they are considered unqualified for jobs in these new industries.
“They are not only unemployed, they are also unemployed. They complain, they have protested against their expulsion [from the land], “he said.” They’re saying … only outsiders come here to benefit and we’re sitting here watching them. “
These complaints had fueled the conflict more than any influence from international terrorist groups, Matsinhe said.
“When they talk about the radical preacher who comes to radicalize the youth, they forget that the government has done about 80% of the work for the radical preacher. He just comes to harvest, ”he said.
Last year, the British company Gemfields, owner of the luxury jewelery brand Fabergé, settled a settlement of £ 5.8 million for alleged human rights abuses by security personnel with Mozambicans living in Montepuez, the second city largest in Cabo Delgado, where the company has a subsidiary. Gemfields acknowledged that there had been violence before and after he took over the site, but denied responsibility, saying it was installed in “the interests of various stakeholders.”
Matsinhe said that some of the militants operating in the area were believed to be from the communities expelled from the mine.
In the weeks since the militants took Mocímboa de Praia, the government has struggled to retake the port, despite its importance to nearby gas fields. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional grouping has considered intervention plans ranging from intelligence gathering to military support.
The existing military intervention has been led by Mozambican forces, with mercenary groups providing air support, and is accused of increasing tension through repeated alleged human rights abuses.
Amnesty International last week demanded an investigation into videos that appear to show soldiers torturing and beheading detainees.
Jasmine Opperman, an Africa analyst with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project, said that while regional forces might be necessary in the military fight against the militants, they could only deliver short-term victories to the Mozambican government.
“The insurgency depends on the dissatisfaction and discontent of young people with the government,” Opperman said. “SADC cannot and should not think that a military intervention, isolated from a… project to address root causes, will solve the problem.
“It will create a false sense that the insurgency has been addressed.”
Inocência Mapisse, an oil, gas and mining specialist based in the capital Maputo, said Cabo Delgado’s reserves could transform Mozambique’s agricultural economy, but the government has yet to invest in the region or its people.
“If we look at the budget of the province of Cabo Delgado in the last 10 years, it is the same in terms of the percentage of [national] budget. It doesn’t change, ”he said.
He described it as an El Dorado, promising transformative riches that cannot be accessed due to the fight for them.
Instead, displaced people in the province have fled massacres perpetrated by militants and abuses by Mozambican forces.
Médecins Sans Frontières staff who fled a militant attack in May said villagers had to flee into the jungle and their families lost many children to panic.
After the fall of Mocímboa de Praia, ACLED documented reports of two women raped by government forces.
Matsinhe said he was concerned about what was happening in the villages at the center of the violence, where the presence of aid is limited or nonexistent and the government has banned the media and researchers.
“It is known that there are people who cannot flee the conflict so they get trapped in those areas. It’s practically a death sentence, ”she said.
