The U.S. continues its efforts to tacke Islamic State in Africa
International Christian Concern (ICC) reports that the United States launched a small programme this week to train Mozambican soldiers as they battle an extremist insurgency that is building momentum in the northeastern province of Cabo Delgado. The group, referred to locally as Al-Shabab, despite not being tied to nearby Somalia’s Al-Shabaab terrorist group, is responsible for at least two thousand deaths and the displacement of well over 600,000 civilians in the region.
The American training programme is limited in size and scope, and no more than a dozen Army Green Berets will be involved. They are not expected to take part in the fighting directly. This type of capacity-building programme is fairly common around the world, particularly in Africa.
Al-Shabab promotes a radical Islamist agenda hostile to outside influence and seems to have ties with the Islamic State (IS). The United States claimed a connection between the two groups just last week, going as far as referring to Al-Shabab as “ISIS-Mozambique” and claiming to have evidence of a direct link between Al-Shabab and IS leadership in Iraq and Syria.
Al-Shabab is known to purposely target civilians—a recent report put out by Save the Children, a UK-based NGO, tells of children as young as eleven being beheaded by the group. Other NGOs have issued reports telling of similar attacks on civilians, including assaults on churches and clergy.
Source: persecution.org
