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2024-06-18 Africa Subsaharan
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The curse of natural gas and armed groups in Mozambique
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[Al Jazeera] The development of the Mozambique Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Project has unfolded against the backdrop of another conflict, the same one that spurred Salama’s dash to the Afungi gate.
These combatants call themselves al-Shabaab
 ... Islamic thugs infesting Mozambique..
, or "the youth" in Arabic, although they have no connection to the better known group with the same name in Somalia.
Somalia's are al-Qaeda, Mozambique's are ISIS.
| True. But Mozambique’s hired themselves trainers in all the varied skills of jihad from Somalia’s — their name is a sentimental hearkening back to that connection. Everyone keeps insisting they’re not connected, but clearly that is untrue. Though whether they still communicate regularly or just exchange Christmas cards every few years is something I don’t know. |
The rebels launched a violent mostly peaceful campaign in 2017 that has continued since. They say they are angry that Cabo Delgado’s people have been cut off from wealth and opportunity.
Al-Shabaab is notorious for its brutality, for beheadings and the abduction of women and kiddies to serve as soldiers and sex slaves, according to Amnesty International. More than 6,000 people have been killed and a million have been displaced over the past seven years.
The fighters have sworn allegiance to ISIS (ISIS), which often broadcasts its attacks.
The presence of a major gas project in Palma contributes to this web of socioeconomic and political frustrations and heightens pressure on the Mozambican army and on international troops stationed in Cabo Delgado to guard the investment.
When al-Shabaab managed to take Palma in March 2021, more than 1,190 people were killed, making it the deadliest such attack to date on the African continent.
In the aftermath, TotalEnergies declared force majeure on its project in Mozambique, enacting an ongoing suspension because of the conflict.
The Afungi site, which is not yet operational, is currently guarded by private security companies and a joint task force made up of the Mozambican military and police. Until this year, this task force had a base within the Afungi site.
The initial 2021 offensive in Palma went on for four days and is the same ambush from which Salama escaped. But the fighters continued to roam the area for several months, attacking anyone who tried to return home.
After more than a week spent looking for a way out of the town, Salama said she finally managed to leave by plane going south.
She spent a few years sheltering in a neighbouring district before returning to Palma in 2022 because she missed her home and hoped that a fragile peace might hold.
But Salama did not stay long in her village, which was slated to be part of the large gas development as resettlement continued even after TotalEnergies declared force majeure.
In 2023, she was relocated to Quitunda, where she made a permanent home in the same place where she had run during the fighting.
Conflict has taken a toll on her family in other ways. Three of her nephews disappeared when al-Shabaab attacked. She believes they were captured by the fighters.
Together, the LNG project and conflict are a "double attack" on the livelihoods of people like Salama, said Julio Bicheche of the Farmers Union Cabo Delgado.
"They had to reset their lives from being displaced, but they also had to reset due to the attack," he said. "In the eyes of the government, in the eyes of the project staff, they don’t see this. What they see are their own interests. No one is going to pay for all these losses." 
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Posted by Fred 2024-06-18 00:00||
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File under: al-Shabaab (IS-Mozambique)
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