Conflict at a Crossroads: Northern Mozambique at a Crossroads

On October 5, 2017, a group of armed men attacked three police stations in Moçimboa da Praia, starting nearly two years of violence and insecurity that still show no sign of ending. Between the first October incident and August 27, 2019, extremists conducted 173 attacks—79 percent of which were committed against civilians—resulting in over 350 deaths, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Database (ACLED).1 There is no consensus on the name or construct of the group committing the violence, but for the purposes of this paper, we will refer to the group as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama (ASWJ), which is one of the several names that observers and local communities have ascribed to the militants.2