The various origins of armed conflict in northern Mozambique

In this Research in Progress seminar, Corinna Jentzsch examines the various explanations given for the continued armed conflict in northern Mozambique

Since October 2017, northern Mozambique has seen a new armed conflict emerging in a province about 2000 kilometers from the capital Maputo, an area rich in natural resources but in which its residents have remained largely poor.

In Cabo Delgado province, an Islamist armed group began targeting government institutions and civilians in a brutal way, and later declared allegiance to the Islamic State. In Spring 2021, it managed to stage a large attack on the town of Palma, close to the site of multinational companies’ gas explorations, which led to foreign interventions by Rwanda and southern African troops.

However, since the beginning of the violence, there has been little information on who is behind the armed group and why its members are fighting. Scholars, analysts, politicians and civil society actors have all developed their own interpretations of what has been going. This presentation will review these various explanations, inquire into the sources that are used to develop these interpretations and discuss paths forward for how to research a conflict that has seen little proclamations by the armed group itself about its own goals.

The discussion is based on a recent fieldwork trip to northern Mozambique and long-term research on the country and its armed conflicts.