Faizel Patel – 09/04/2021

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

The Secretary General of the Jamiatul Ulama South Africa Ml Ebrahim Bham says the situation in Cabo Delgado in Mozambique is very worrying and have consequences on the entire region.

Ml Bham was speaking to Radio Islam about the ambush that killed dozens including a South African man while the UN says more than 11,000 were forced to flee.

In a coordinated attack, insurgents seized Palma, a port that lies close to a multi-billion-dollar liquid natural gas (LNG) project viewed as crucial for the Mozambican economy.

Several days after the Palma attack, ISIS claimed it had carried out the operation.

Ml Bham says the Jamiat has condemned the attacks in the strongest terms.

“While in certain quarters it has been termed as an Islamist insurgency, the truth is somewhat different and it is rather more complex. It has more to do with a vacuum created by poor governance, commercial interests, fighting for oil and gas resources in the region and exclusion and marginalization of the inhabitants of the area.”

Ml Bham has urged people to make dua that Allah returns calm to Mozambique and not allow the country to have negative consequences for the rest of the region.