ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attack in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado region on a graphite mining project run by an Australian company. Two security guards at the location were beheaded, according to the terrorist group.
Triton Minerals, an Australian mining exploration and development company, acknowledged the attack on its premises on June 8 in the Cabo Delgado province’s Ancuabe District. Two members of the company’s security and caretaker personnel were also slain, according to the corporation.
Previously the militants operated mainly in the districts of Macomia, Mocimboa da Praia and Meluco further north in the province, but the group has recently begun targeting districts in the south of the province as well.
Cabo Delgado has been at the centre of an insurgency since 2017 that has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. As a regional response to this SADC, SADC deployed a mission on 15 July 2021 named SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) to support Mozambique in combatting terrorism and acts of violent extremism.
SAMIM comprises troops deployment from eight SADC member states namely, Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia, working in collaboration with the Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique (FADM) and other troops deployed to Cabo Delgado to combat acts of terrorism and violent extremism.
This recent attack in Cabo Delgado occurs just 3 months following a three-day visit to the province by SADC-state ambassadors to Mozambique who were there to monitor and celebrate the SADC mission in the country.
