SUMMARY
ASWJ or Ahlu al-Sunna wa'l Jama'a (Followers of the Prophetic Tradition, deriving from the long-form name for Sunni Islam) was an Islamist rebel group active in Mozambique. It was also known as Ansar al-Sunnah (Supporters of the Tradition) and locally as al-Shabaab (without any known links to the Somali al-Shabaab). In one of the few known statements from ASWJ the group claimed to fight to establish “the Koran as the law, religion and the government of God”. Thus, the primary goal of ASWJ was to establish a state governed by Islamic law (Sharia) in Mozambique and the group was thus registered as fighting the Mozambique state in a conflict over government power. However, according to criminal charges brought against 200 alleged members in December 2018, the group intended “with their armed actions to create instability and prevent the exploitation of natural gas in Palma, and later create an independent state, which annexes the districts of the northern region of Cabo Delgado and the south of... Tanzania”.
ASWJ originally primarily recruited socioeconomically marginalized young men from the Mwani (also called Kimwani) tribe, a group mainly located in the coastal areas of Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique. It has also been known to recruit from the Makuan community, the largest ethnic group in Cabo Delgado. ASWJ engaged in widespread forced recruitment by kidnapping boys and young men. Cabo Delgado is a Muslim-majority province in the otherwise mostly Christian country, and has been an economic backwater since independence. The insurgency was allegedly linked to discontent with planned gas extraction in the province, which had thus far done little to alleviate high unemployment in the area. Discontent has also been directed at the economic and political dominance of the Makonde tribe in Cabo Delgado. Cabo Delgado was where the independence war against Portugal first took off, leading to many of Frelimo's top cadres being from the region's Makonde ethnic group, including the current president Filipe Nyusi. As a result, the local party elite was largely Catholic and Makonde, and has long been seen as exploiting the province's natural resources for their own gain.
Reports diverge on when ASWJ was formed, with some claiming 2010 and others 2015. The group began as a religious organization that rejected orthodox Islamic practices in northern Mozambique, which it considered to have degenerated away from the original teachings of Islam. ASWJ reportedly had a relatively flat leadership structure between the commanders of its various cells. Reportedly, amongst its leadership were said to be several locals of Cabo Delgado, most notably Bonomade Machude Omar, also known as Ibn Omar and Abu Sorraca, who was later named as the leader of the Islamic State in Mozambique by the USA and Mozambican governments. Several Tanzanians and a South African has also been said to be part of the groups leadership.
ASWJ launched its armed struggle in October 2017, through attacks on several police stations in Mocimboa da Praia, located in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province. Following these coordinated attacks, its members acted as part of small cells, launching sudden attacks on small villages throughout Cabo Delgado. The group was estimated to have consisted of up to 20 such cells of about 20 men each in 2018. The violence committed by ASWJ in 2018 mostly targeted civilians using primitive weaponry and small arms, while the group mostly avoided direct confrontations with the army. In 2019 the group gradually scaled up these attacks as it became better armed and repeatedly clashed with security forces. The attacks also came to encompass a larger area, having originally focused mainly on small clusters of villages along the coast of northern Cabo Delgado. The attacks spread further inland, even hitting the non-coastal districts of Muidumbe and Meluco.
Joining the Islamic State
ASWJ reportedly had links with other fundamentalist groups in Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia, with some of its members allegedly having received military and religious training in these countries. Other reports bespoke of alleged links to the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) in DR Congo and Uganda. The speculations on links to groups in the DR Congo intensified when the Islamic State's Central Africa Province (ISCAP) began claiming attacks in both Mozambique and the DR Congo in mid-2019.
At first, the nature of ASWJ's links to IS was uncertain, with different observers either dismissing any ties whatsoever, speculating on the entirety of ASWJ having become an IS affiliate, or only some parts of the group shifting allegiance. During 2019 and early 2020, the preponderance of evidence strongly indicated IS quickly became a fixture of the violence. IS insignia became a common sighting, along with insurgents proclaiming their allegiance to IS to the population of captured villages. A video published by an IS propaganda outlet on 24 July 2019, which purportedly showed ASWJ swearing allegiance to IS, has been used as the start date for ASWJ joining IS and thus becoming part of the Mozambique: Islamic State conflict.
