ABSTRACT
The connection between violent attacks in Southern Tanzania and Northern Mozambique has not been fully acknowledged in scholarly, political and media discussions. These attacks are treated as separate problems rather than as an interlinked conflict. The consequence is a limited insight into the origin of the extremists associated with being responsible for the attacks traced to the 1980s, when radical preachers gained influence among the population on the East African coast and began recruiting fighters in support of established terrorist organisations in neighbouring Somalia and further afield in Pakistan and Afghanistan. These fighters later returned with the aim of establishing terrorist groups that pledge loyalty to international terrorist organisations. They exploited informal cross-border links between Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. In Mozambique they embedded in the port of Mocímboa da Praia. It is argued that, despite having signed multiple bilateral security agreements, Mozambique and Tanzania have not used their historical ties to effectively conduct cross-border counter-terrorism operations. They treat the threats as isolated cases rather than as a problem that has deep historical roots in Southern Tanzania and Northern Mozambique. The lack of a mutual counter-terrorism strategy has resulted in each country pursuing an individual approach to the threat.
