According to the Shabelle Media Network in Mogadishu, a group of about 30 men attacked three cop shoppes in the small town of MocÃmboa da Praia in the northern-most province of Cabo Delgado, about 30 km from the Tanzania border, early on 5 October.
'There was a prompt response from the police; two AK-47 rifles were seized,' said Inacio Dina, spokesperson of the General Command of the Mozambican police at a presser in Maputo. He said two coppers were rubbed out, and two gang members were captured. According to other reports, 16 people died, including a community leader.
The same group, it seems, struck early on 21 October, clashing with government forces in the fishing village of Maluku, some 30 km from MocÃmboa da Praia. 'These attacks prompted the villagers to flee and the village is currently deserted,' a security industry source said.
Further festivities were reported by independent sources during the night of 22 October at a village called Columbe, about 16 km south of an installation of Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corporation which is exploring for oil and natural gas there. The company is evacuating its personnel, the sources say.
What motivated the local al-Shabaab
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the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...to suddenly launch these attacks, is hazy
Locals called these raiders 'al-Shabaab'. Whether they call themselves this too, or whether it's because of their headgear and what they reportedly told locals after occupying MocÃmboa da Praia - that they rejected state health and education and refused to pay taxes - is not yet clear.
There was understandably speculation at first that they were linked to the Somali jihadist group of the same name. But Dina cast doubt on this interpretation from the start, as he said they spoke in local languages including Swahili and Portuguese. There now seems to be consensus that they are local Moslems. Eric Morier-Genoud, the Mozambican-born political scientist from Queens University, Belfast, wrote in The Conversation that this was a group of local Moslems formed in 2014 and calling itself al-Shabaab.
Mozambique has a significant Moslem population ranging in size from somewhere between an official 17.8% of the total population to, unofficially, 30%, according to some Moslem community members themselves. It's mostly concentrated along the northern coast.