EU and Mozambique: With soldiers against disillusionment?

Help against the terrorists in the north of the country: The EU wants to send soldiers on a training mission to Mozambique. Is this mission, in which Germany is not participating, the correct answer?

In the north of Mozambique, indigenous and non-Mozambican insurgents have been carrying out attacks, kidnapping children, indiscriminately killing civilians and thus terrorizing the population of Cabo Delgado province since 2017. The Mozambican government does not seem to be able to put an end to the uprising. Portuguese and US instructors are already in the country. The SADC (Southern African Development Community), the development community of southern Africa, also wants to send soldiers, and the Rwandan government announced on Friday that it would be sending 1,000 soldiers. And now the EU wants to start a mission to train soldiers of the Mozambican army and thus support them in the fight against the insurgents. Above all, the former colonial power Portugal will deploy soldiers – Germany does not want to participate in the mission for the time being.

The cruel climax of the violent uprising in northern Mozambique was the capture of the small city of Palma at the end of March. Only a hundred terrorists managed to occupy the city within a few hours. Corpses lay in the streets, some of them beheaded. Tens of thousands of people fled the region that day and the days after. The Mozambican police and army were nowhere to be seen, they are considered completely overwhelmed and poorly trained. Helicopters from a South African security company were able to save some people, but the vast majority of the population was helplessly exposed to the terrorists.

More than 800,000 people, more than a third of Cabo Delgado’s 2.3 million inhabitants, are now on the run. Almost a million people are at risk of starvation. And that because of a terrorist group that only has a few thousand members? Politicians and the media were quick to describe the insurgents, who call themselves “Ansar-al-Sunna” (roughly: “Defenders of Islamic Tradition”), as pure Islamist terrorists.

Who are the insurgents?

However, it is too easy to categorize “Ansar al-Sunna” insurgents across the board as “Islamists”. They may call themselves that, they may also be named as such by the government in Maputo, and even the so-called Islamic State may claim them for themselves. In reality, most of them are young men from the region, disaffected and with no prospects for the future, who decided to revolt almost ten years ago. Only a few Tanzanians and Somalis are there. The insurgents reflect the composition of the population in northern Mozambique.

The Mozambican historian Yussuf Adam says that there are no clear classifications among the population. The ethnic groups of the Mwani, Makonde and Angoni are involved in the uprising, as well as Muslims but also Christians and members of traditional African religious communities. What they all have in common is that they have broken away from the majority of the population, and they all share a deeply felt hatred of the Mozambican government.

The feeling of neglect

The province of Cabo Delgado is larger than North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate combined. Large parts of the province are inaccessible. Most of the two and a half million inhabitants here feel neglected by the government in Maputo, 2000 kilometers away, and firmly believe that they will not be able to benefit from the large gas reserves off the coast.

The existence of these deposits has been known for many years without anything being done to them. In July 2020, however, the French energy multi-agency “Total” started what is currently the largest single investment project in Sub-Saharan Africa off the coast of Mozambique. More than 1.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas are to be extracted here. Because of the attack on Palma, only ten kilometers from the extraction system, the project is suspended.

Better to stay undisturbed

The Mozambican government has long resisted foreign interference. RW Johnson, a British political scientist who knows the region, is not surprised. He says the major heroin smuggling routes from Asia run through northern Mozambique. And not only heroin, precious stones and gold are also included. And also trading with people. Mozambican politicians are deeply involved in all of these smuggling activities. You want to stay undisturbed.

After weeks of urging from abroad, Mozambique’s head of state Filipe Nyusi finally gave in. The question, however, is whether it is even possible to pacify such a huge and impenetrable region with a few thousand soldiers and a few trainers. Non-governmental organizations such as “Misereor” and “Bread for the World” firmly reject this. The people of Cabo Delgado need other help, not military help.

“These people need alternatives, they need help. An expansion of the conflict will only worsen the living conditions of the population,” says Helle Dossing, Africa department head at “Bread for the World”. Your counterpart at “Misereor”, Peter Meiwald, adds: “It is negligent to support this long-term military intervention by an EU mission without a thorough analysis of the causes of the conflict in the EU Parliament.” Yussuf Adam, the Mozambican historian, says it could be too late for that. “Ansar al-Sunna” is already too strong, maybe only a military solution will help. “If your enemy shows up with a bazooka, there’s no point just having a sling with you.”