ReliefWeb

Cabo Ligado — or ‘connected cape’ — is a new conflict observatory monitoring political violence in Mozambique, launched in partnership with Zitamar News and Mediafax.

By the Numbers: Cabo Delgado, October 2017-June 2020

• Total number of organized violence events: 433

• Total number of reported fatalities from organized violence: 1,222

• Total number of reported fatalities from civilian targeting: 797

All ACLED data are available for download via the data export tool, and a curated Mozambique dataset is available on the Cabo Ligado home page.

Situation Summary: 1-7 June

Cabo Delgado remained on edge last week, with insurgents downshifting from their large-scale attack on Macomia district two weeks ago to smaller, more scattered attacks. In all, Cabo Ligado received reports of four insurgent attacks, in which at least six people were killed, all civilians.

The first reported attack last week took place at Imbada, Meluco district, on 3 June. Insurgents entered the village at night and beheaded three civilians and looted some supplies without firing a shot, according to a man whose brother-in-law was among the victims. On the same day, insurgents fired at a group of refugees who were attempting to return to Macomia. The incident took place near the ADPP junction, in Quissanga district, and it is not clear if there were any casualties, but a beheaded body was found just south of ADPP on the same day, which may have been a victim of that attack.

On 5 June, insurgents killed two fishermen on a beach near Ulo, Mocimboa da Praia district, as they tried to reach their fishing boat that had been stranded by a low tide. On the same day, insurgents kidnapped girls in the Nabubussi neighborhood of Mocimboa da Praia as they drew water from a local well. In the past, attacks like these in the center of the province have sometimes been followed by attacks in Nangade, in an apparent effort to further spread out government forces.

New information also emerged about the 28 May attacks on Macomia district as some civilians gradually returned to the scene of the fighting. The civilian death toll in Macomia town now stands at 19, and civilians returning to Chai and Litamanda report finding six and five bodies of civilians in those villages, respectively (Zitamar News, 5 June 2020). During the Macomia attack, insurgents told locals that they were only interested in fighting state forces, but they also killed civilians who they caught drunk. Insurgents occupied Chai for four days, and returning civilians say that almost all buildings in the village have been burned down, with the exception of the local Catholic church. The town is now mostly abandoned.

The Islamic State claimed the Macomia attack in its weekly Al-Naba newsletter on 4 June. That represents a curious departure from past attacks on district capitals that have been heralded by official IS news agencies Amaq and Nashir. Al-Naba, according to the International Crisis Group, “seems intended to update even far-flung provinces about the group’s global campaign of violence and to broadcast a common programmatic line to ISIS affiliates that are otherwise dispersed and isolated,” which is to say that it is a less prestigious publication within the group than Amaq and Nashir (International Crisis Group, 31 March 2020). It is only one data point, but the relegation of the Macomia claim to Al-Naba is the first departure we have seen from the trend of ever-closer collaboration between Cabo Delgado insurgents and IS propagandists.