EU adds Mozambique’s terror group Cabo Delgado to its sanction list

Photo: MOHAMED DAHIR/AFP via Getty Images

The European Union Council today decided to add two individuals and one group affiliated with ISIL and operating mainly in the Cabo Delgado region in Mozambique to the list of those subject to restrictive measures against ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaeda and persons, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with them.

These measures target ISIS-Mozambique as well as Abu Yasir Hassan and Bonomade Machude Omar, who hold key leadership roles in the group. The sanctioned group and individuals are responsible for terrorist attacks and serious human rights abuses.

Their activities contribute to the expansion of the terrorist threat in Mozambique and pose a serious threat to the EU and to regional and international stability.

With these new listings, a total of 15 persons are now subject to a travel ban and an asset freeze, and five groups to an asset freeze. In addition, EU persons and operators are forbidden from making funds or economic resources available to the listed persons and groups.

Today's decision reconfirms the EU's resolve in countering the continued terrorist threat posed by Al-Qaeda, ISIL/Da'esh, and their regional affiliates.

The EU remains committed to taking decisive action against those who continue to threaten international peace and security by planning, financing, and committing terrorist attacks, and by spreading their deadly terrorist propaganda around the world.

Alongside the targeted sanctions, the EU deploys a wide variety of initiatives as part of an integrated approach – encompassing humanitarian, development, peacebuilding, and security actions – to address the armed violence in Cabo Delgado. Under this approach, the EU has been supporting displaced people fleeing violence and providing food and basic goods to local populations suffering as a result of the grave humanitarian situation.

The EU has also put in place multidimensional security support consisting of the deployment of an EU military training mission (EUTM Mozambique) and the delivery of non-lethal equipment through the European Peace Facility, and an EU counter-terrorism expert assisting in the police and law-enforcement sector in Mozambique. In addition, the EU supports regional and bilateral security efforts in Cabo Delgado.

GAROWE ONLINE