Musty salt air crept at dusk over the nets and moored boats on northern Mozambique’s coast as seven armed and uniformed men marched into the fishing community last month, demanding the keys to the mosque.
Once inside, they commanded – over the microphone used for the call to prayer – that locals on the edge of the port town of Mocimboa da Praia come to listen.
It was only when they unfurled an ISIS banner, the mosque’s imam Sumail Issa told CNN, that it became clear who they were. Also palpable was the new-found confidence of the jihadists, emerging in recent months after the chaotic collapse of US aid funding to one of Africa’s poorest countries.
“When they called everyone over, as soon as they saw that flag, a colleague and I left, saying we needed the toilet,” Issa said, adding they went to notify the military.
The men’s faces were exposed, video posted to social media reveals, and the speech one of them gave was considered – delivering a highly localized manifesto, showing both ambition and independence from other ISIS franchises, analysts have noted.
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