{"id":2751,"date":"2022-02-14T10:05:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-14T08:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org\/news\/?p=2751"},"modified":"2022-02-14T10:06:46","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T08:06:46","slug":"mozambiques-most-wanted-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/mozambiques-most-wanted-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Mozambique\u2019s most wanted man"},"content":{"rendered":"

A young footballer from the remote district of Palma is now on the US\u2019s global terror list \u2013 and Mozambique\u2019s
\ndefence minister has promised to take him dead or alive. Meet Bonomado Machude Omar, the elusive leader of the Cabo Delgado insurgency.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A young footballer from the remote district of Palma is now on the US\u2019s global terror list \u2013 and Mozambique\u2019s
\ndefence minister has promised to take him dead or alive. Meet Bonomado Machude Omar, the elusive leader of the Cabo Delgado insurgency.<\/p>\n

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: In a report this week, the International Crisis Group described the Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique, now in its fifth year, as \u201camong the gravest threats to peace and security in Africa\u201d. But the origin of<\/em><\/strong>
\nthis threat, and the identity of the insurgents, have long been shrouded in mystery.<\/em><\/strong>
\nIn this edition, The Continent profiles the insurgency\u2019s most public figurehead \u2013 and the key to understanding their tactics and motivations<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Luis Nhachote and Milda Quaria<\/strong><\/p>\n

His name is Bonomado Machude Omar, born in Palma district, in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.
\nHe\u2019s been involved in the insurrection in Cabo Delgado since it started in 2017, and is now \u2013 according to the US State Departmen<\/a>t \u2013 the most prominent face of an insurgency that has crippled the region.
\nLast April, the head of Mozambique\u2019s military, Crist\u00f3v\u00e3o Chume, promised Omar \u201cwill be captured dead or alive\u201d.
\nChume is now the country\u2019s defence minister. On 6 August last year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken designated Omar as a member of the Islamic State and a \u201cglobal terrorist\u201d, in a public statement.
\nDescribed as both quiet and brutal, Omar served as a navy soldier in Mozambique\u2019s defence force from 2003 to 2005. But he now wants to tear down the very state that he served, and replace it with a caliphate.<\/p>\n

Who is Bonomado Machude Omar?<\/p>\n

In an article in September 2020, Mozambique\u2019s Centro de Jornalismo Investigativo (CJI)<\/a> identified Bonomado Machude Omar, also called Omar Saide or Sheik Omar, as the speaker in a video which went viral in social media in March 2020. The speaker in the video claims to be a leader of the insurgency, which by that time had been going on for three years.
\nThe following year, Mozambican think tank OMR published a further profile of the man \u2013 explaining how he was born in Palma in the village of Ncumbi, and moved to Moc\u00edmboa da Praia at the age of five after his father died. His mother remarried, and Omar\u2019s stepfather introduced him to Islam, which he studied and mastered. He finished 10th
\ngrade at Janu\u00e1rio Pedro High School in Moc\u00edmboa da Praia and, according to former teachers, was a calm young man, a good student, and a good football player<\/p>\n

Described as both quiet and brutal, Omar served as a navy soldier in Mozambique\u2019s defence force from 2003 to 2005. But he now wants to tear down the very state that he served, and replace it with a caliphate.<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After leaving school, he served in the navy in Pemba, and then moved to an African Muslim boarding school to finish
\n12th grade. He was popular among his peers, known for his sense of justice and protection of the younger ones. One of his hobbies was playing football. Due to his height, between 1.80m and 1.90m, and the fact that he played in midfield, he acquired the nickname of Patrick Vieira, the French footballer who made his name at Arsenal.
\nHe made a living selling vegetables and Muslim clothing at a market in Pemba, on behalf of a foreign merchant, who is said to have been either Tanzanian or Somali.
\nHe travelled to Tanzania and South Africa. He then returned to Moc\u00edmboa da Praia, where he built a mosque, as well
\nas a stall for the sale of trinkets acquired in Tanzanian markets or in the city of Pemba.
\nThen he participated in the first attacks on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia in October 2017, and took refuge in the bush. It is still
\nunclear how he became radicalised, or what prompted the turn to violence.
\nFor his military skill and camouflage ability he acquired locally the nickname \u201cKing of the Forest\u201d. He is, the OMR
\nthinktank says, currently the leader of the insurgents in Mozambique \u2013 something confirmed by the US Department of State statement last year, which describes him also as being \u201cthe lead facilitator and communications conduit for the group\u201d.<\/p>\n

Promise to the people<\/p>\n

Bonomado led the insurgency\u2019s attacks on Palma in March 2021, and on Moc\u00edmboa da Praia a year before. Both towns have since been retaken by Mozambique\u2019s military with the help of the Rwandan Defence Force; Mozambique was unable to hold or retake them on its own. It was after the fall of Moc\u00edmboa
\nin 2020 that Bonomado made his now famous speech, recorded on a cameraphone and distributed far and wide. It gives a sense of his motivations. Standing in front of the town\u2019s police station \u2013 a potent symbol of state power
\nthat had fallen to the jihadis \u2013 Bonomado told the local population that they would not kill anyone or steal from the people, despite facing opposition from them.
\n\u201cWe know that your will was for us to disappear,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cBut God has blessed us and we have gained more strength. \u201cWe came the first time, we\u2019re back, this is the second time, we\u2019re giving you another chance; we\u2019re not going to kill anyone, we\u2019re not going to destroy anything that belongs to the people, everything we spoil will be the government\u2019s,\u201d he said. \u201cWe occupy to show that the government today is unfair. It humiliates the poor and gives advantage to the bosses. It\u2019s the lower class who get detained, so that\u2019s not justice,\u201d he continued.
\nHe said his group was working for an Islamic government \u2013 and emphasised that \u201cwe are children from here, and these faces are not new. There are so many of us in the bush.\u201d
\nDespite his noble words, the insurgents have been implicated in multiple brutal massacres of civilian populations \u2013 just like the security forces they are fighting.
\nAnd Omar, according to one source with an intimate knowledge of the group\u2019s operations, plays a leading role in
\ncommanding military operations. The insurgents are divided into as many as 30 smaller groups which each
\nhaving their own specialisation, such as bomb-making, tunnel-boring, and intelligence-gathering, and the leaders of
\neach group report to Omar.
\nThe group finances its activities through mineral smuggling and drug trafficking, and this too allegedly runs
\nthrough him, the source said.
\nDue to the shadowy nature of the insurgent group, Omar could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

A new Dhlakama?<\/p>\n

Since that day in Moc\u00edmboa in 2020 \u2013 and the fall of Palma in March 2021 \u2013 the Mozambique government, with the help in particular of troops from Rwanda, have got back on the front foot. The towns have been retaken, and Omar is thought to be moving from base to base, as troops from Mozambique, Rwanda, and the SADC mission in Mozambique dismantle bases that they find.
\nBut the appeal of Omar and his men to the dispossessed of Cabo Delgado remains a danger, warns Mozambican
\nresearcher Jo\u00e3o Feij\u00f3, the author of the OMR think tank\u2019s report on Omar and other leading insurgents.
\n\u201cVarious testimonies describe him both as someone sinister and brutal, but also with a sense of justice,\u201d Feij\u00f3 told The Continent in an interview last week. \u201cThere are several factors that produce this type of leaders: radicalisation
\nthrough studies in madrasas, revolt with the concrete experience of poverty and marginalisation and even opportunism, which takes advantage of the desperation of communities,\u201d Feij\u00f3 said.
\n\u201cI draw a parallel with Afonso Dhlakama,\u201d Feij\u00f3 added, referring to the late leader of the Mozambican resistance
\nmovement and later opposition party, Renamo. \u201cHe was the protagonist of a civil war tearing up the country, but he
\nattracted crowds and was very popular.\u201d
\nThe success of such populists underlines the need for any solution to the conflict to include social inclusion, and
\nmeeting the basic needs of communities.
\n\u201cI am not against defence and security solutions, but this approach must be accompanied by the creation of jobs for young people, the provision of basic social services, respect for human rights and incentives for the democratic
\nparticipation of communities in the political and economic life of the country,\u201d Feij\u00f3 said. \u25a0<\/p>\n

This article was original published at The Continent\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young footballer from the remote district of Palma is now on the US\u2019s global terror list \u2013 and Mozambique\u2019s defence minister has promised to take him dead or alive. Meet Bonomado Machude Omar, the elusive leader of the Cabo Delgado insurgency. A young footballer from the remote district of Palma is now on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[284],"tags":[266],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56-250x481.jpeg",78,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56-400x769.jpeg",156,300,true],"large":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56-650x1250.jpeg",532,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",6,12,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56-150x289.jpeg",150,289,true],"retina2x":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"retina3x":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"retina4x":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"retina5x":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false],"retina6x":["https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2022-02-14-at-07.26.56.jpeg",681,1310,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Reda\u00e7\u00e3o CJIMOZ","author_link":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/author\/hcuambe\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Analise<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"A young footballer from the remote district of Palma is now on the US\u2019s global terror list \u2013 and Mozambique\u2019s defence minister has promised to take him dead or alive. Meet Bonomado Machude Omar, the elusive leader of the Cabo Delgado insurgency. A young footballer from the remote district of Palma is now on the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2754,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjimoz.org.mz\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}