CABO DELGADO - There are diamonds, gold and a gigantic gas bubble in the ground, but that doesn't help the inhabitants of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. The government abandons them and the army can't protect them from violence. The militant Islamist group Al-Shabab manages more and more to recruit the impoverished population with an ill-founded, religious story. MO* went to the heart of the affected province.
January 25, 2020, Mozambique. A troop of 35 armed men raid the village of Cagembe, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. Tavares (pseudonym), a local trader, sees it happen.
"It was around eleven o'clock in the morning. Men armed with assault rifles and machetes invaded Cagembe. They sang songs and shot in the air. They wore military uniforms and carried a black flag with Arabic letters. They demanded that the village chief would show them the military barracks."
PRINT/ONLINE (in Dutch)
- Mozambikanen dromen van gasdollars, maar vrezen voor gewelddadig jihadisme, MO.be, 7/04/2020.
- "Dromen van gasdollars, maar vrezen voor jihadisme", MO*, 03/06/20.
