Mozambique declares end to insurgency in gas-rich Cabo Delgado region

Mozambique on Thursday declared that it has captured the last remaining training camps used by insurgent rebels in its northern Cabo Delgado province, signaling what officials are calling the end of a years-long insurgency.

Mozambique Chief of Defense Intelligence Ricardo Macuvele said the operation was successful thanks to the deployment of troops under the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique, which played a key role in defeating the insurgents.

Vast offshore gas deposits were discovered in Cabo Delgado in 2010. Militants linked to the DAESH group launched an insurgency in the area in 2017, stalling the exploitation of the gas deposits discovered there in 2010. Close to 5,800 people have been killed.

TotalEnergies, which suspended a giant gas project there after a major attack in 2021 in which dozens of people were killed, said earlier this year its project would only resume when "peace and security" return to Cabo Delgado.

‘Contain situation’

"Zambia also helped us a lot to contain the situation, the, territory which you helped us recover from the terrorists; we still hold it and we have even captured the last training camps for the rebels," said Macuvele in a statement issued by the Zambian Defense Ministry on Thursday.

Macuvele made the remarks during a visit to Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, where he met with Zambian Permanent Secretary for Defense Maambo Haamaundu.

Haamaundu said Zambia was in solidarity with its c ounterpart state in combating terrorism and fighting transnational crimes, including human trafficking.