- The US military’s special forces will train Mozambican marines over the next two months to counter the spread of al-Shabab.
- This comes after the US listed the group as a foreign terrorist organization last week because of its ties to ISIS.
- The violence in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado caused 2,000 deaths and displaced 670,000 people.
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The elite Green Berets have been deployed to help defeat Islamic State insurgents accused of beheading children as young as 11 years old in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
US Army special forces will train Mozambican marines for the next two months to counter the rapidly rising uprising of the ISIS-linked terrorist group al-Shabab.
This comes after the US officially listed the group as a foreign terrorist organization last week because of its ties to ISIS, to whom they were loyal in 2018 and which claimed its first attack in June 2019.
Mozambique, in southern Africa, represents the worrying spread of Islamic insurgency on the continent. Other countries facing ISIS-linked violence are Somalia, Nigeria, Niger, Mali and Libya.
The US embassy in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, said the use of the green berets was to prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism.
According to an insider report last month, the Green Berets are being asked to deploy worldwide, establish lasting relationships with local groups that are friendly to the United States and then teach the groups how to kill effectively. The SF soldiers then start on missions with the locals and fight side by side.
The situation in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, which began in 2017, became even more urgent last year, with up to 3,500 fighters regularly occupying important towns with the military.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, 6,000 civilians were killed, Save the Children added. About a million people also need food aid, according to the UN.
“They took my oldest son and beheaded him.”
Elsa, 28, whose name was changed to protect her identity, is standing with her family on January 26, 2021, in a relocation camp in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
Rui Mutemba / Save the Children / Handout via Reuters
According to Save the Children, children as young as 11 were executed who spoke to displaced families who described the horrific executions by Islamic insurgents.
One mother, Elsa, 28, whose name was changed, told Save the Children: ‘That night our village was attacked and houses burned. When it all started, I was home with my four kids.
‘We tried to flee to the forest, but they took my eldest son and beheaded him. We could not do anything, because we too would be killed. ‘
The impoverished Mozambique, in southern Africa, relied on foreign mercenaries, especially from South Africa, who were also accused of human rights violations.
A report by Amnesty International found that both parties had committed war crimes, with government forces responsible for abusing civilians, something they denied.
The remains of a burned and destroyed house will be seen on August 24, 2019 in the village of Aldeia da Paz outside Macomia, Mozambique.
Marco Longari / AFP via Getty Images
Cabo Delgado has 2.3 million inhabitants, most of whom are Muslims, and according to the BBC is one of the poorest provinces in Mozambique with high illiteracy and unemployment.
Al-Shabab, which should not be confused with the Somali al-Qaeda terrorist group of a similar name, means The Youth in Arabic.
Al-Jazeera reported that there are eddies among unemployed young people from the area.
Although a ruin and gas field was discovered in Cabo Delgado in 2009 and 2010, creating dreams for a better life for the local population, it was quickly undermined by violence and extreme floods, the BBC said.