New York, United States, Sept. 11, 2025 (Lusa) - The Islamic State in Mozambique (ISM) maintains a "coherent leadership" despite international interventions, uses kidnappings as a source of funding and has increased its activity around gold mines, researcher Peter Bofin said on Thursday.
The ISM has been active in northern Mozambique, in the province of Cabo Delgado, and has maintained "a kind of coherence in leadership, despite a certain change in operational tactics, because the group has been dispersed and reduced by international intervention", explained Peter Bofin, senior researcher at the organisation Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) during the seminar "The Islamic State's [IS] turn towards Africa".
Bofin recalled that there had been two significant international interventions: a multilateral one by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and one in Rwanda, funded by the European Union.
However, in the researcher's opinion, as the SADC mission was "dominated by South Africa", this created distrust for the Portuguese-speaking country, as Pretoria has a large stake in the Mozambican economy.
Tanzania was also present at the SADC mission, but, according to the expert, its interest was related to peace, as they are neighbouring countries.
On the other hand, the specialist in South-East African affairs emphasised that Rwanda also has interests in Maputo, to expand its commercial interests, and in Cabo Delgado specifically, because of natural gas.
This faction of the Islamic State (IS) has occasional funding from the Somali group in Puntland, he emphasised.
However, since 2024, there has been "a big change in their funding", he warned.
"As in the Sahel, there has been a significant increase in kidnappings for ransom and extortion," he lamented. According to Bofin, this reality was practically insignificant before 2024, but it has become "significant".
'So far, in 2025, it is three times more than in 2024 and represents 10% of the Islamic State's activity in Mozambique,' he said.
Another aspect highlighted is that there has also been an increase in activity around gold mines in 2025, which, for the academic, is something to be investigated.
Globally, more than two-thirds of IS activity in the first half of 2025 took place in Africa, explained Clionadh Raleigh, the president and CEO of ACLED.
IS is increasingly directing its operations towards Africa, where it retains the ability to coordinate violence over a wide area, generate financial resources and expand its recruitment base, Raleigh explained.
"This move to Africa comes at a time when the group's propaganda is also increasingly focused on its operations in Africa, with its affiliates gaining influence and prestige in the global IS network," he said.
NYC/ADB // ADB.
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