Amid revolts, the US Special Operations Force has committed itself to spending two months training Mozambican marines so they can fight a jihadist insurgency in the north eastern Cabo Delgado province.
As revealed in a statement, under the “Joint Combined Exchange Training” programme, the United States Embassy in Maputo said it will provide training along with medical and communication equipment.The American forces who will take part in the programme are already in Mozambique.
For more than three years, the armed groups, known locally as al-Shabab who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019 have caused terror in the strategic province of Cabo Delgado, along the Mozambican border with Tanzania also being implicated because of their natural gas.
At the end of December last year, the conflict reached a symbolic turning point with attacks carried out for the first time just a few kilometres from a multibillion-euro gas project operated by the French oil and gas company, Total.
Since the Islamist insurgency began in 2017, more than 2,500 people have been killed while 700,000 have fled their homes. However, the militants have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group to help end the conflicts and save many lives.
