Islamic State Mozambique — De Facto Map

Islamic State Mozambique — Jihadist insurgency · Mozambique · The Islamic State's province on the Cabo Delgado coast.

Islamic State Mozambique (ISM): the insurgency known locally as al-Shabaab, which began with an attack on Mocímboa da Praia in October 2017 and became a province of the Islamic State in 2022. It held Mocímboa da Praia town for a year until Rwandan and Mozambican troops took it back in August 2021. The map stripes its key area of influence, about 7,000 km² between the N380 and the sea: ISM keeps its headquarters there, takes food and money from villages and moves freely, but holds no town and runs no government, and Rwandan and Mozambican troops are posted along the highway and on the coast inside it. Its fighters range far beyond: south to the mining areas of Ancuabe, Chiúre and Montepuez in April and May 2026, and into Niassa in September, where they took hostages from a hunting camp and released them for a ransom in October. In August and September they turned increasingly on civilians in Mocímboa da Praia, Muidumbe and Macomia, and attacks in late September drove more than 4,400 people from their homes.