SUMMARY

The MPA-SOC (Mouvemnent populaire anjouanais – Said Omar Chamassi faction: Anjouan People’s Movement – Said Omar faction) group is a splinter group originating from MPA/Republic of Anjouan. The split occurred when ideological differences within MPA/ Republic of Anjouan became too substantial to fit under the same organisational structure. The core disagreement was the aims of the newly proclaimed independent state of Anjouan. The leader of MPA/ Republic of Anjouan, Abdallah Ibrahim, argued for a more flexible approach, opening up for negotiations with the federal authorities in Moroni. His antagonist, Said Omar Chamassi was not keen to the idea of negotiating with the former authorities. His standpoint was that Anjouan should do everything to be constitutionally linked with the former colonizers France.

As Anjouan proclaimed its independence in 1998, Ibrahim became the islands first president, and Said Omar Chamassi the prime minister. Up until that point the group was still one united actor, but when the seemingly trivial issue of deciding a date for the commemoration of the proclamation of independence the differences got too intense to handle. The issue of setting a date became a highly profiled issue: Ibrahim wanted to have the commemoration on 3 August, while Chamassi prompted that the ceremony should take place on July 14, the French national holiday. This detail was the decisive blow to the continued cooperation between Ibrahim and Chamassi, and forced the two factions within MPA/Republic of Anjouan to split.

During the violence the men under Chamassi’s command were reported to have used heavy and sophisticated weaponry, a claim that fed the rumour that France was in fact backing Chamassi. These rumours were strongly denied by the French government. Following the bout with the former companions there has been no mentioning of Chamassi’s group.

MPA-SOC has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.