The Cabo Delgado Insurgency in Mozambique: Origin, Ideology, Recruitment Strategies and, Social, Political and Economic Implications for Natural Gas and Oil Exploration

This paper reflects on the insurgency and terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique by an alleged Islamic affiliated extremist group called Ansar al-Sunna. The paper closely investigates the origins of Ansar alSunna and its ideology including its links and possible supporters. It further delves into Ansar al-Sunna's recruitment strategies of its jihadists within and without the province under scrutiny and possibly internationally. The paper discusses the economic implications of the Ansar al-Sunna insurgency in light of the exploration and discovery of natural gas reserves in the province among other minerals that Cabo Delgado is endowed with as a province. Findings that emerge from the research show possible links of Ansar al-Sunna with ISIS of Iran and Iraq as well as Al Shabaab of Somalia among other terrorist groups including Boko Haram of Nigeria. Furthermore, the research shows that Ansar al-Sunna started as an extremist religious group in the province before it morphed into a fully-fledged terrorist outfit. The paper reveals that Ansar al-Sunna recruits from its adherent religious followers including forcefully recruiting the general populace in the province and that the insurgency pauses a serious threat to economic viability of Mozambique among other issues. The paper adopts a Desktop research methodology, which involves secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. In the context of this research, it involved searching libraries, the internet, public and private media among others. This paper appealed to Human Needs Theory (HNT) as its theoretical framework.