Ansar Al-Sunnah

Ansar al-Sunnah was founded in 2003 to protect Ansar al-Islam members who fled to Iran as a result of a joint operation between Iraq and the USA. They aimed to remove the US military forces and the Iraqi militants who carried out a joint operation with them from Iran, so they would secure themselves.

Having gained its independence from Portugal in 1975 and experienced a civil war between 1976-92, Mozambique had 25 years of non-conflict after the civil war. Nevertheless, it frequently made headlines in the international arena because of the terrorist activities of Ansar al-Sunnah, which emerged in 2017 and intensified its activities over several years. The movement, which used to exist as a religious group that fled to Mozambique from Kenya toward the end of 2015 and restructured itself by joining the radical Salafist youth there, started to take up arms in the north of the country.

The United States and the Iraqi government of the time described Ansar al-Sunnah as a branch of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jamaat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Al-Qaeda in Iraq).In October 2004, Ansar al-Sunnah released a video in which a Turkish truck driver was kidnapped and his head cut off. The militants in the video introduced themselves as part of Al-Tawhid wal Jihad. This showed that the organization was as described by America and Iraq. But only three years later, in January 2007, a letter received by the United States revealed that these two groups were not connected but in conflict.

In July 2007, Jaish Ansar al-Sunna launched an alliance of Sunnis to ensure the withdrawal of the United States of America and its allies. This new alliance consisted of seven groups that completely excluded Al Qaeda and the Baath Party. Tactical differences began to emerge between al-Qaeda, which remained outside, and Ansar al-Sunna, who was described as the founder of the alliance. This situation was seen as the reason for the attacks on Iraqi Shiite civilians

In December 2007, Abu Abdullah al-Shafi, the leader of the Ansar al-Sunnah group, issued a statement emphasizing that the group was one with Ansar al-Islam and that it had another name. In this text, it was also stated that they would no longer continue their activities as Ansar al-Sunnah but under the name of Ansar al-Islam. Despite this, a group still involved in some events under the name of the Ansar al-Sunnah community was active until 2014.

The terrorist group carried out its first recorded act in October 2017, when a group of 30 members killed 17 people, including 2 policemen, in the Mocimboa Da Praia region of Cabo Delgado province in the north of the country and since then, Cabo Delgado has been among the world’s conflict zones. In this process, the group also maintained its dominance on the field for a certain period; and by using the socioeconomic problems in the country to its advantage, it significantly expanded its manpower pool with promises of jobs and money. There are figures of Somalia and Tanzania origin besides Mozambicans in the administration of the organization. More than 50 of the 400 people evaluated for membership in the organization came from countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Somalia.

As part of its frequent methodical attacks on civilian elements, the organization burned thousands of houses, workplaces, schools, places of worship, and government buildings, killed thousands of civilians, and succeeded in taking some parts of the country under control from time to time through terrorist attacks. It is estimated that Ansar al-Sunnah is responsible for the death of more than 2,500 people, the forced displacement of more than 700 thousand people, and the severe starvation that nearly 1 million people suffered from.

This problem in Mozambique continues to grow and is becoming with each passing day a more significant issue of humanitarian crisis, international terrorism, and natural resources, and also lays the groundwork for the intervention of international actors in the region. The security threat in the country has regional and global repercussions due to both the external links of the organization and the forced migration, adding a rapidly deepening international dimension to the issue.