Cabo Delgado: Africa’s Forgotten Insurgency Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime

On March 24th 2021, Islamist insurgents carried out an attack on the coastal town of Palma in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. The days of fighting, looting, massacres, private military contractors, and dramatic rescues led to thousands more people fleeing to escape the violence.
The attack took place just a few kilometres from Total’s $20 billion-dollar natural gas project on the Afungi peninsula and in the same province as the huge ruby fields of Montepuez.
Last year the Global Initiative asked how this ongoing insurgency is impacting the illicit flows that travel through the region – after the attack at Palma, we have decided to revisit this subject.
This is a collaborative episode between Africa and the Global Illicit Economy and Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime.
Presenter: Lindy Mtongana
Speakers:
Prof. Adriano Nuvunga – Director of the CDD Mozambique
Zenaida Machado – Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch
Alastair Nelson – Senior Fellow, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
Johann Smith – Independent Security Analyst in Mozambique
Colonel Lionel Dyck – CEO of the of Dyck Advisory Group (DAG)
Reading:
Observatory of Illicit Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa – Risk Bulletin Issue. 17
A Triangle of Vulnerability: Changing patterns of illicit trafficking off the Swahili coast
Podcast: Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime – Insurgency and illicit trade in Northern Mozambique
'Criminals and Terrorists': Framing Mozambique's Insurgency - OCCRP
Hundreds Missing After Mozambique Attack: Government Should Provide More Information About Situation in Palma
Amnesty International: Mozambique: Civilians killed as war crimes committed by armed group, government forces, and private military...