Mucojo | |
|---|---|
  Mucojo | |
| Coordinates: 12°3′55″S40°28′45″E / 12.06528°S 40.47917°E | |
| Country |  Mozambique |
| Province | Cabo Delgado |
| District | Macomia |
| Elevation | 18 m (59 ft) |
| Population (2015) [1] | |
| • Total | 1,683 |
| Time zone | UTC+02:00 (CAT) |
Mucojo is a town in Macomia District in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique. [2] It has been the site of the heaviest and worst fighting of the Insurgency in Cabo Delgado.
The Mucojo residents have for long been supporters of the FRELIMO and still are. [3]
The town has been the site of the heaviest and bloodiest fighting during the Battle of Mucojo. [4] The Mozambican Army as well as the Rwandan Army have been fighting militants in Mucojo since 2020. [5] The town has switched hands between anti-Islamic militants, Islamic State affiliates, and the Mozambican army, and at times even the locals. [6] The town was finally liberated on 29 October by Mozambican and Rwandan forces. [7]
On 6 September, the Mwani population of Mucojo rebelled and killed the head of the town, a member of the Makonde. [8]
During the 2022 Mozambican floods, Mucojo was badly affected and relief groups came to its aid. [9]
There is a domestic airfield on the outskirts of the town. [10]
Cabo Delgado is the northernmost province of Mozambique. It has an area of 82,625 km2 (31,902 sq mi) and a population of 2,320,261 (2017). As well as bordering Mtwara Region in the neighboring country of Tanzania, it borders the provinces of Nampula and Niassa. The region is an ethnic stronghold of the Makonde tribe, with the Makua and Mwani as leading ethnic minorities.
Nampula is a province of northern Mozambique. It has an area of 79,010 km2 (30,510 sq mi) and a population of 5,758,920, making it the most populous province in Mozambique. Nampula is the capital of the province.
The Rwanda Defence Force is the military of the Republic of Rwanda. The country's armed forces were originally known as the Forces armées rwandaises (FAR),but following the Rwandan Civil War of 1990–1994 and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (Inkotanyi) renamed it the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), its army name during the struggle of 1990–1994. Later, it was renamed to its current name.
Mocímboa da Praia is a port town in northern Mozambique, lying on the Indian Ocean coast, in Cabo Delgado Province. It is used as a border post for travel to and from Tanzania even though it is 127 km from the border by road. It is the seat of Mocímboa da Praia District.
Filipe Jacinto Nyusi is a Mozambican politician serving since 2015 as the fourth president of Mozambique. He is the current leader of FRELIMO, the party that has governed Mozambique since its independence from Portugal in 1975. Additionally, he has served as the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community since August 2020. During his time in office, President Nyusi has promoted peace and security, and signed multiple agreements with the main opposition parties, RENAMO, to bring a definitive and lasting peace to Mozambique.
The insurgency in Cabo Delgado is an ongoing Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique, mainly fought between militant Islamists and jihadists attempting to establish an Islamic state in the region, and Mozambican security forces. Civilians have been the main targets of terrorist attacks by Islamist militants. The main insurgent faction is Ansar al-Sunna, a native extremist faction with tenuous international connections. From mid-2018, the Islamic State's Central Africa Province has allegedly become active in northern Mozambique as well, and claimed its first attack against Mozambican security forces in June 2019. In addition, bandits have exploited the rebellion to carry out raids. As of 2020, the insurgency intensified, as in the first half of 2020 there were nearly as many attacks carried out as in the whole of 2019.
Al-Shabaab, also known as Ansar al-Sunna or Ahlu Sunna Wal Jammah, is an Islamist militant group active in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique. Since October 2017, it has waged an insurgency in the region, seeking to undermine the secular FRELIMO government and establish an Islamic state. It has occasionally captured territory from the government and has been accused of committing atrocities against civilians.
The Central Africa Province is an administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised quasi-state. As a result of a lack of information, the foundation date and territorial extent of the Central Africa Province are difficult to gauge, while the military strength and activities of the province's affiliates are disputed. The Central Africa Province initially covered all IS activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Uganda. In September 2020, during the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, IS-CAP shifted its strategy from raiding to actually occupying territory, and declared the Mozambican town of Mocímboa da Praia its capital. After this point, however, the Mozambican branch declined and was split off from IS-CAP in 2022, becoming a separate IS province; as a result, this leaves IS-CAP to operate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
This article lists events from the year 2020 in Mozambique.
The Mocímboa da Praia offensive was a six day long offensive in northern Mozambique by Islamic State's Central African Province (IS-CAP) to capture the town of 30,000. The offensive, part of the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, was a major success for IS-CAP, as they captured Mocímboa da Praia.
This article lists events from the year 2021 in Mozambique.
The Battle of Palma or the Battle for Palma was fought during late March and early April 2021 over control of the city of Palma in Mozambique, between the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces, other Mozambican security forces and private military contractors on one side, and Islamist rebels reportedly associated with the Islamic State (IS) on another side. The Islamists invaded the city, killing dozens of people before Mozambique regained control days later. Palma was left destroyed, and a major oil and gas company decided to suspend all operations in the area due to the battle. Researchers have described the battle as an overall success for the insurgents. The rebels also maintained their presence in the town's surroundings, and continued to raid Palma in the following weeks. The battle was part of the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, which started in 2017 and has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, mainly local civilians.
From July to November 2021, the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces (FADM) and Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), and belligerents from Southern African Development Community (SADC) states, conducted offensives in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique, against local rebels loyal to the Islamic State's Central Africa Province (IS-CAP). The first offensive succeeded in retaking the important town of Mocímboa da Praia which had previously fallen to rebels as a result of the insurgency in Cabo Delgado.
The Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) is an active regional peacekeeping mission operated by the Southern African Development Community in Northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province.
The Battle of Mucojo was a military engagement between unidentified Anti Islamist militants, Islamic State affiliates, and the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces in the coastal town of Mucojo during the Insurgency in Cabo Delgado. It started on 22 April 2021 when anti-Islamist militants took control of Mucojo and nearby villages including Lumumua. The militants started a killing spree near Mucojo after the Mozambique Army retook many villages near Mucojo.
The Battle of Mbau was a battle by the joint Mozambican-Rwandan armed forces against ISIS and Al-Shabab in their headquarters of Mbau, a town 50 kilometers southwest of Mocimboa da Praia. The attack on the location was part of the 2021 Cabo Delgado offensives. Mbau was known as the headquarters of Al-Shabaab and the Mozambican counteroffensive on the town resulted in the loss of Mbau, Siri 1, and Siri 2.
On February 9, 2024, militants from the Islamic State - Mozambique Province stormed a military position of the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces on Friday morning 9 February 2024 in Mucojo, Macomia District in the Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique.
On April 7, 2020, jihadists from Islamic State – Central Africa Province in Mozambique killed at least fifty-two young civilians in Xitaxi, Muidumbe District, Mozambique after the young men of the village refused to join the group. The massacre was one of the deadliest massacres perpetrated by Mozambique's cell of the Islamic State.
On June 27, 2020, jihadists from al-Shabaab raided the city of Mocímboa da Praia in the Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique. Al-Shabaab fighters attacked the city following brutal crackdowns against civilians by the Mozambican government, and in their attacks, destroyed homes and killed more civilians. A Mozambican counteroffensive aided by South African mercenaries of the Dyck Advisory Group renewed fighting in the city, with the mercenaries being criticized for their indiscriminate shooting of civilians.
Between November 6 and 8, 2020, jihadist militants from Ahlu Sunna Wal Jammah (ASWJ) executed over fifty civilians in the village of Muatide. The massacre took place four days into the group's occupation of the town, and many of the victims were undergoing male initiation rites. The bodies of residents from other occupied villages were brought to the football field in the town, and ASWJ fighters hunted down remaining civilians that had fled into the bush.