ABSTRACT
Since 2017, Mozambique has been facing an insurgency in its northeastern, gas-rich and majority Muslim Cabo Delgado province, which has spilled over into the neighbouring Nampula and Niassa provinces. As elsewhere on the continent, Mozambique has seen an overlap between local grievances and transnational Salafi jihadist ideology. Frelimo has dominated Mozambique's political space since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975, and especially after the end of the civil war in 1992. Conflict proclivity is also exacerbated by Mozambique's tight fiscal situation and weak state capacity, especially in peripheral regions. Following these events, upon Mozambique's invitation, the Rwandan military was deployed in the area; the Southern African Development Community put in place its Standby Force Mission in Mozambique; and the European Union launched an EU Training Mission.
