Overview
On March 24, 2021, operatives of ISIS’s Central Africa Province (actually, these are operatives of the local Ansar al-Sunna organization that pledged allegiance to ISIS)
[1] mounted a large-scale attack against Palma, a Mozambican coastal city with about 75,000 inhabitants, and took it over. The city is located in the Cabo Delgado Province, in northeastern Mozambique, the hub of the organization’s activity, near the largest natural gas field in Africa, where foreign companies are involved in the operation.
According to ISIS, the operatives mounted the attack from Mocímboa da Praia, a port city that ISIS took over on August 12, 2020. During the attack, which ISIS claimed lasted three days, ISIS operatives killed over 50 soldiers and Christian civilians, including citizens of Western countries, and there were reports of hundreds of people missing. ISIS operatives took over government and military buildings, government facilities and banks. They also seized large quanti