US Military Involvement in Mozambique
On Monday US embassy representatives in Maputo announced in a press release that there will be a two month Joint Combined Training (JCET) mission where US Special operations soldiers will train the Mozambican Marines in their fight against Ansar al-Sunna who has been leading an insurgency in the Cabo Delgado region since 2017. This announcement comes five days after the US State Department designated Ansar al-Sunna an international terrorist organization, who they estimate has killed more than 2,300 people and displaced over 670,000 people.
Another issue has been addressed by the US counter-terrorism coordinator John Godfrey, he stated that he is “concerned” with private military companies complicating state matters in combating the Insurgency in Mozambique.
Foreign Private Military groups in Cabo Delgado
The infamous Russian Wagner group had been contracted by Mozambique’s government and in 2019 an estimated 160 military advisors were sent to Cabo Delgado to get a stranglehold on the region. They seemed to be doing effective missions with aircraft in collaboration with local military and Tanzanian forces, until later that year in October when two ambushes occurred which resulted in 7 Wagner contractors being killed including 5 being beheaded. By March 2020 there had been reports that the private military organization had pulled out and had been replaced by the Dyck Advisory group.
The South African Dyck Advisory group is primarily known as an anti-poaching security group that has been providing services in Mozambique’s violent Cabo Delgado region like training the local police force and advising combat missions with air support. Although groups like Amnesty International have accused the Dyck Advisory group of indiscriminately dropping explosives from helicopters and killing civilians.
CCN Staff Writer – Analysis who specializes in Central and East African Conflicts/Geopolitics
