MOZAMBIQUE COUNTRY PROFILE
New Year 2024 saw an upsurge of attacks by Estado Islamico em Mocambique (EIM), or Islamic State of Mozambique, in the northeasterly Cabo Delgado Province. They torched 18 churches in Chiúre District over a three-week period in February. As they pressed into Cabo Delgado’s southern districts, they carried out the largest sustained campaign against the region’s Christians since the militant uprising began in October 2017. After taking over Mucojo, Macomia District in January 2024, EIM introduced elements of Shari‘a law, including banning alcohol. In Quissanga District, they demanded that non- Muslims pay the jizya tax and formed checkpoints to collect road tolls. 133 On Sunday, February 11 th , on Macomia Road near Muaguide, they killed a driver and burned a car. 134 EIM’s social media played up the religious dimension of the new campaign, showing churches torched and Christian symbols destroyed, including crucifixes. SELECTED INCIDENTS SEPTEMBER 2022 Islamists attacked a Catholic mission in Chipene, Nampula Province, on September 6 th , killing Sister Maria de Coppi and burning down the library, boarding schools, vehicles, and the priests’ and nuns’ houses. Bishop Alberto Vera Aréjula of Nacala said: “The Sister they murdered worked with malnourished babies and children. They are telling us very clearly, they don’t want us there.” 138 JANUARY 2023 EIM took responsibility for attacks on two Christian villages – which left two people dead and four injured – posting images of houses torched during the New Year’s Eve attack on Namade, Cabo Delgado
At the beginning of the period under review (August 2022), it was clear that jihadism had a significant role in the insurgency, which has affected all civilians in the northeast regardless of religion. A source in Pemba Diocese told ACN: “Since July this year, it appears that the ‘Islamic State’ has taken control of the [insurgents]… For us, the situation is more sensitive than it was last year, because now the Christians are beginning to be targeted, and the war is taking on a more religious dimension.” 135 Bishop António Juliasse of Pemba has stressed that endemic poverty and lack of education are driving the Islamist insurrection, rather than religion. 136 While the key factors leading young Mozambicans to join EIM are not religious, they are supplying jihadism with a fighting force, which has led to around 5,000 people being killed and one million displaced. 137 on social media. EIM presented the attacks as a clash between Christianity and Islam. JUNE 2023 Christian and Muslim leaders announced a new interreligious dialogue and peace initiative, aiming to stem armed violence in Cabo Delgado. 139 FEBRUARY 2024 EIM raided more than 12 villages. Bishop António Juliasse of Pemba said, “Around a dozen villages, some of them heavily populated, were targeted,” and “all the Christian chapels were destroyed.” The worst attack took place in “Mazeze, in the administrative posts of the district of Chiúre, where many state-owned public and social infrastructures were destroyed.” 140
26 Persecuted and Forgotten?
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