Written by Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press-Tanzania Mozambique military forces this week revealed that they seized the leader of an armed group, a Tanzanian citizen, in Nangade district in the northern Cabo Delgado province.
The 39-year-old leader, known as Ali, was captured alongside six other Islamic State group-linked insurgents, military officials say.
The big fish
Ali is said to have been one of the militant leaders whose task was to recruit fighters and direct attacks.
Attacks
His capture comes amid a deteriorating security situation in the district, with a series of jihadist attacks in recent days. In about two weeks, the insurgents have attacked seven villages in Nangade, according to media reports.
The latest attack happened in Limualamuala village on Saturday and resulted in the deaths of six people who had been attending an initiation rites ceremony.
Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Tanzania and Mozambique
In 2016, an Islamic State (ISIS) cell called Jahba East Africa was established stretching across parts of Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda; it began launching terror attacks.
Increased attacks
In 2020, ISIS increased its attacks in Africa and expanded into the southeastern Swahili Coast, home to valuable ruby and natural gas deposits. In northern Mozambique, rebels used a local soccer pitch as an “execution ground” to decapitate and dismember more than 50 people, including children.
Last year, in a four-day rampage, 200 ISIS-affiliated terrorists attacked Palma, a town in northern Mozambique, killing dozens and destroying the town’s food warehouses, banks, and a police station. The group, which says it intends to create a caliphate in the region, also seized the strategic and tactical port of Mocimboa da Praia (March).
Other killings
On 25 August 2021, a heavily armed gunman suspected to be a terrorist fatally shot three police officers and a security guard in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, near a French embassy building. Police later killed him.
Tanzania has not suffered a major terrorist incident since the bombing of the United States embassy in 1998, there have been a number of smaller-scale incidents. In October 2020, close to the border with Mozambique, the attack was claimed by Islamic extremists operating from northern Mozambique. Most attacks target the local security forces.
