ABSTRACT
The situation in Cabo Delgado in Mozambique involving clashes between the defence force, Ansar al-Sunna and the armed forces of foreign states necessitates an assessment to be done of the typology of the nature of the conflict. An assessment of the hostilities is needed to determine the existence of an armed conflict and of the applicable legal regime. Notably, an application of the rules of international humanitarian law depends on the existence of an armed conflict. The argument in this chapter asserts that hostilities among the parties meet the threshold of an armed conflict and maintain they have been escalated above a Common Article 3 conflict to the level of an Additional Protocol II-type conflict. An intervention in the conflict by foreign states raises a query about the classification of the nature of the conflict, but it is maintained that it remains a non-international armed conflict.
