Strategic Mozambican port town of Mocimboa da Praia falls to Rwandan and Mozambican forces

Rwandan and Mozambican forces have taken back the centre of the strategic port town of Mocimboa da Praia in northern Mozambique from insurgent forces, who had held the town for almost a year. SADC Intervention force is still 400km from the battle.

The symbolic victory, spearheaded by the Rwandans, happened before a regional intervention force had joined battle with the insurgents, who are affiliated to Islamic State.

It was not clear how much combat was required to re-occupy the town. Some sources said the insurgents had abandoned the town without intense fighting, as their military base is some distance away. The Mozambique defence ministry announced on TV that the Mozambican and Rwandan forces were in control of government buildings and the airport and sea port while some operations were still continuing in the outskirts of the town.

The ministry said the insurgents were losing ground.

The assault on Mocimboa da Praia, which the insurgents had been using as a base for operations further into the northernmost province of Cabo Delgada, began on Friday with an advance on two fronts by land.  Though some Rwandan and Mozambican troops arrived in the town in small boats, this was only after the insurgents had withdrawn from the town, according to one source.

The Rwanda Defence Force tweeted on Sunday; “JUST IN: The port city of Mocimboa da Praia, a major stronghold of the insurgency for more than two years has been captured by Rwandan and Mozambican security forces. The city also holds the District Headquarters and Airport.”

The recapture of the town was also confirmed by several other sources, including Borges Nhamirre, a researcher with the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) based in Maputo.

Meanwhile, an intervention force of about 3,000 troops of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was still assembling at Pemba, the port city and provincial capital, about 400kms to the south of Mocimboa da Praia.

Security sources said parts of the South African contingent which is the largest, were still arriving in Cabo Delgado. Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi, current chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, is to travel to Pemba on Monday to officially launch the SADC Mission to Mozambique (SAMIM), his office announced at the weekend.

ISS’s Nhamirre said the Mozambique government had been determined to recapture Mocimboa da Praia before August 11, the date the insurgents captured it last year, to deny them the opportunity of celebrating the anniversary of their victory.

With the Rwandans in the vanguard, the government troops had advanced on two fronts, from the Mozambican military’s main provincial base at Mueda in the southwest, through the central town of Awasse and from Afungi, the location of the suspended liquid natural gas processing plant, in the northeast, through Quelimane village.

It had been expected that the Rwandan and Mozambican forces would only launch their assault on Mocimboa da Praia after the SADC forces had assembled. There is bound to be suspicion that the decision to capture the strategically and symbolically important town even before SADC forces had gone into action was Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi’s way of telling SADC that it was not really necessary. For many months Nyusi seemed to be resisting SADC pressure to allow the regional force to deploy because other SADC member states felt he was failing to contain the insurgency, which they feared might spread across the Mozambique border into neighbouring countries.

However other analysts believe it was never going to be SADC’s role to lead the charge against the insurgents and that it would be happy to play a support role.

Nhamirre said he had been told the SADC forces would now be employed to help clear the insurgents from important corridors across Cabo Delgado province.

Questions are also being asked still about the overall mission of the anti-insurgent forces; whether it is merely to clear a wide enough secure zone around Afungi so that the French energy corporation Total feels safe enough to return to continue processing gas; or whether the goal is to clear the entire province of insurgents to enable the proper development of Cabo Delgado for the benefit of all its people. 

Peter Fabricius Daily Maverick