The moment Yussuf Abdallah met the Rwandan soldiers he knew the game was up.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old Islamist insurgent in northern Mozambique was part of a group known to local people as Shabaab. It has loose ties with Isis and has over the past four years terrorised the northern province of Cabo Delgado, displacing more than 800,000 and killing more than 3,000.<\/p>\n
But then troops from a country barely a fraction of Mozambique\u2019s size showed up and cleaned up most of the area in a\u00a0matter of weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were overwhelmed by their number, they were also extremely fierce,\u201d said Abdallah, now a prisoner of the Mozambican state in the coastal city of Moc\u00edmboa de Praia, until August an insurgents\u2019 stronghold. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t contain the confrontation, they have better weaponry, we couldn\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rwanda\u2019s 1,000-strong brigade of soldiers and police achieved in weeks what Mozambican and other forces had been unable to do in years. The turn of events in Cabo Delgado illustrates Kigali\u2019s willingness under president Paul Kagame to reach beyond its borders and act as police officer in regional disputes.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got a lot to do with African solutions for African problems\u201d, said Col Ronald Rwivanga of Rwanda\u2019s Defence Forces. Gas, jihad, discipline, and projecting power: Rwanda flexes muscles in fight against terror in Mozambique https:\/\/t.co\/jWCWHjFI62<\/a> via @financialtimes<\/a><\/p>\n — Andres Schipani (@AndresSchipani) October 3, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n