U.S. begins training Mozambican military for fight against ISIS insurgents

times reporter

(The Southern African Times) – The United States has reportedly joined the growing fight against

jihadist insurgents in northern Mozambique.

As reported by the New York Times, A dozen U.S. Army Green Beret special forces began training Mozambican marines this week in a two-month program.

The move indicates a greater commitment by the new Biden administration to the fight against the Islamic State-linked insurgency.

Last week Washington formally designated the insurgency — which it named ISIS-Mozambique — as a global terrorist organisation and imposed sanctions on it and its leader, whom it named as Abu Yasir Hassan.

The insurgents who operate in Mozambique’s northernmost Cabo Delgado province sometimes call themselves Al-Sunna wa Jama’a, (ASWJ). Locals also call them Al-Shabaab — though they are not known to have any formal link to the group of that name in Somalia, which is affiliated to Al-Qaeda, not the Islamic State.

(With input from New York Times and Daily Maverick)