This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
JIHADIST rebels in Mozambique have now displaced nearly a million people, the International Organisation for Migration estimates.
A new offensive by the Ansar al-Sunna extremist group, which seeks to establish a theocratic Islamic state in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province and one of only two that have Muslim majorities, has forced an extra 80,000 people to flee, the organisation said, bringing the total to 950,000. Islamic State (Isis) is also now active in the area.
The latest offensive began two months ago and has seen the rebels push further south than before, burning villages and beheading civilians in the Ancuabe, Chiure and Mecufi districts.
It shatters government claims earlier this year that the “war against terrorism is almost at an end” following counteroffensives that drove the rebels out of major towns such as Palma.
The Southern African Development Community, a 16-nation bloc, has deployed troops to Mozambique for a year to help crush the rebels and decides this month whether to extend the mission.
