- The U.S. Army’s green berets are on the ground in Mozambique to train the military to carry out a growing ISIS – linked uprising.
- Mozambique’s inability to suppress the violence had already attracted Russian and South African mercenaries, which the militants did not resist.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Last week, militants stormed the city of Palma in northeastern Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique.
The fighters attacked civilians with machetes and assault rifles, leaving behind decapitated and bullet-proof bodies. Thousands of people fled from the besieged city to the coast.
The violence lasted for several days and culminated in the Amarula Palma Hotel, an oasis for expats and foreign workers, where helicopters evacuated people barricaded inside and searched for others hiding nearby. Reports put the death toll from scores to hundreds.
The bloodshed was a surprise for most, but probably not, for the U.S. Army Green Berets, who had been in Cabo Delgado for weeks to train the army of Mozambique, according to a report by The New York Times in March.
According to The Times, ‘two dozen’ of the elite soldiers in the region were part of an ongoing effort to contain the militant group Ansar al-Sunna, known locally as al-Shabbab (unrelated to the Somali jihadist group). keep. reaffirmed its commitment to ISIS.
A US soldier talks to a Mozambican soldier next to a US C-130J in Maputo, Mozambique, on April 5, 2019.
US Air Force / Technology. Sgt. Chris Hibben
The soldiers were part of what the Special Forces referred to as a Joint Combined Exchange Training, or JCET. Special Operations Command Africa launched the JCET in Mozambique in March and sent two special forces teams, each with 12 soldiers, to Cabo Delgado.
A source close to Army Special Forces told Insider that the JCET was reinforced with a Crisis Response Force – the equivalent of the Special Forces of a Tier terrorism force.
According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, six 12-person Special Forces teams were deployed to Mozambique.
However, Special Operations Command Africa denied that any CRF had been deployed.
“There is no contingency power from 3rd [Special Forces Group] or any other U.S. unit in Mozambique, “a spokesman said. The team currently in Mozambique is only there to hold a joint combined exchange training. “
Militants, mercenaries and civilians under fire
A wrecked car that was involved between 24 March and 27 March 2021 in a trap on civilians fleeing Palma.
Dyck Advisory Group / Handout via REUTERS
JCETs are practiced around the world as a way for special forces soldiers to train first-hand experience with foreign military forces, learn essential skills and build up their local knowledge.
JCETs also allow the U.S. military to keep an eye on the ground in conflict-ridden regions, but they have been criticized for accidentally equipping foreign forces with skills that are misused when the US leaves.
On March 10, the US State Department designated Ansar al-Sunna a terrorist organization and officially confirmed its ties with ISIS. Conservative estimates put Al-Sunna’s current force at 800 rebels and growing rapidly.
The name is not unfounded, based on the violence attributed to the group’s fighters over the past few years. But it has become common for the US to issue such instructions before the covert operations against those organizations.
Such directions allow special operational forces air support, and, more importantly, American predator drones. U.S. laws allow U.S. commanders to strike on the ground for strikes when U.S. troops carry out terrorist operations.
The government of Mozambique sought to subjugate Al-Sunna, and many criticized the government for draconian measures and heavy-handed military operations that do little to distinguish civilians from insurgents and only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
Mozambican soldiers at the airport in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, on March 31, 2021.
AFP via Getty Images
Because the government could not suppress the violence, he first turned to the Wanger Group, a Russian security firm linked to the Kremlin. The group is owned by Yevgeny Preghozin, a Russian oligarch who is very close to Putin, and his fighters are deployed in Africa and the Middle East, regularly acting in accordance with Moscow’s interests.
In 2019, Wagner mobilized a large force, including helicopter ships, against al-Sunna in Cabo Delgado. The militant group was supported by ISIS and with fighters and equipment from neighboring countries. Wagner’s forces were largely polluted by a lack of experience in the region and quickly retreated to Nacala, about 250 kilometers south.
The Mozambican government is turning to the Dyke Advisory Group, or DAG, a South African private military contractor.
DAG experienced the same problems: a growing uprising supported by international terrorist organizations and entangled with the local population. The Amnesty International report also attributes atrocities to DAG, citing eyewitnesses of DAG people who fired from helicopters, “indiscriminately shot at crowds of people” as well as repeatedly at civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and homes.
DAG had little success against al-Sunna. When the insurgents stormed Palma, the helicopters that used DAG for assaults became rescue birds. DAG helos reportedly helped evacuate 200 civilians from the cut-off Aramula Palma hotel.
A Dyck Advisory Group helicopter lands in Palma, Mozambique, between March 24 and March 27, 2021.
Dyck Advisory Group / Handout via REUTERS
The recent violence comes at an important moment for DAG, whose relationship with the Mozambican government has weakened.
DAG staff trained Mozambique’s army for months with helicopters imported by the group from Britain to supplement the army’s own helicopters, which are variants of the Mi-24 attack helicopter.
But DAG struggled with this assignment in Cabo Delgado. Several reports of crashed planes have leaked from war-torn province over the past year, including one celebrated by militants carrying the now-branded ISIS flag in a video released by ISIS’s media wing.
DAG’s owner, Lionel Dyke, commented on the problems the group was facing.
“We’re doing something no one else can or wanted to do. So use what you have. And if it’s not effective, we’re fired. It’s as simple as that,” he told CNN on March 31.
The government of Mozambique terminated the contract the next day.
Search for the resources of Cabo Delgado
The Afungi liquefied natural gas camp in Afungi, Mozambique.
WFP / Handout via REUTERS
The background to the violence and efforts to suppress it are Cabo Delgado’s valuable natural resources, which the Mozambican government is using to attract foreign aid.
Cabo Delgado is home to one of Africa’s largest natural gas reserves. The gas discovered in 2010 was initially a source of hope for the residents of Cabo Delgado. Locals believed the reserves would lead to good jobs and boost the beleagured local economy.
But the central government of Mozambique – especially its ruling party – dealt directly with gas companies in exchange for the bulk of the profits. Locals, mostly struggling subsistence farmers and fishermen, were left out, and many lost access to their agricultural land and fisheries.
People in Cabo Delgado, a Muslim province in the majority, have been frustrated by years of government corruption, as well as isolation and discrimination from the rest of the country. As elsewhere, ISIS used local anger to expand its operations and spread its message of radicalization.
Islamists from elsewhere in Africa have set up mosques in Cabo Delgado and spread rumors that local imams are associated with the corrupt government, Mozambican expert Joseph Hanlon wrote in a report for the BBC. These Islamists began providing financial aid to local communities and told residents that their lives would be better under the strict Islamic law known as Sharia.
People fleeing attacks by insurgents in the northern part of Cabo Delgado on February 24, 2021 during a meeting in Matuge in northern Mozambique.
ALFREDO ZUNIGA / AFP via Getty Images
To receive support from ISIS – mostly in the form of weapons – all the locals, and later the members of Ansar al-Sunna, had to do to recognize ISIS and promote the group’s propaganda and efforts to expand. .
For its efforts, ISIS can expand its reach to a new region – where ungovernable spaces further facilitate expansion – and gain access to valuable resources whose profits can be redistributed to other needy franchises.
The violence and those involved are the reason why the US Special Operations Command has tripled its powers in the province.
The answer probably reflects a mixture of political and commercial interests. Washington can see continued chaos in Cabo Delgado as a threat that will definitely benefit ISIS and its operations in Africa. U.S. businesses could also try to gain access to the precious natural gas that foreign companies are already using.
Mozambique is now on the list of African countries where the US is deeply involved. The fighting in Cabo Delgado is far from over, but what is still uncertain is whether the elite Green Berets and deadly drones they use will be stimulated like the Russians and South Africans before them.
JW Sotak is a defense and foreign policy reporter focusing on the Middle East and Africa. He is a 10-year veteran of the U.S. Army and serves as part of a provincial reconstruction team for Army civilian affairs in Afghanistan. His reports have been published in SOFREP and the New York Times. You can follow him on Twitter at @JWSotak.