https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/03/31/mozambique-palma-attack-insurgency/
An ongoing, week-long assault by Islamist militants on a northern Mozambique town that has left dozens dead and tens of thousands fleeing marks a significant escalation of the conflict that will precipitate a “humanitarian catastrophe,” analysts and aid organizations said. A largely homegrown militancy that borrows iconography from the Islamic State and professes allegiance to the global terrorist network has grown in power since 2017 when it began launching attacks in the oil-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado. The group’s latest assault was on the Cabo Delgado town of Palma, which is at the center of $60 billion worth of offshore oil projects near Mozambique’s border with Tanzania. Defense Ministry officials acknowledged that the besieged town remained contested. The military was still attempting to “eliminate some pockets of resistance,” the ministry said. But the government has for years played down the insurgency’s threat — deflections that have come under increased scrutiny as harrowing details of the Palma attack come to light. Besides a provisional toll, officials have remained largely silent on what by other accounts was a significant attack on one of Mozambique’s most economically important towns. The impoverished region of Mozambique has long held the ingredients for conflict, Queface, and others. The marginalization of minority groups has been exacerbated by the arrival of thousands of workers from outside the region for the oil projects, and has deepened a sense of abandonment and fueled recruitment by the militants.
Perusing news media in Europe and Asia, there is scarce reporting about Mozambique’s current problem with what appears to be ISIS-like terrorists. I think the world is tired of these outbreaks in areas of the world where local government and political figures are impotent or unwilling to change years of decay. There are harsh lessons from the past and ongoing examples of asymmetrical warfare which lead most developed countries to avoid being involved in more outbreaks. These local terrorist outbreaks will continue because there is no realistic counter to those who want to expend their time and lives killing other people. It is a scourge for civilization but difficult to counter because major world powers have their own axes to grind.