FRELIMO's reluctance to accept external military assistance has brought the operational capacity of the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) in Cabo Delgado's North Operational Theater (TON) to the brink of exhaustion. Immediately after the major attack on 24.MAR against the town of Palma, the military commanders issued a report addressed to the commander-in-chief and PR, FILIPE NYUSI (FN), in which they stated that military assistance was necessary to stop the expansion of the insurgents, which would grow with the end of the contract and the withdrawal of the private military company Dyck Advisory Group from the front (AM 1296). FN was in favor of the findings, but was vetoed by FRELIMO conservative circles (AM 1297).
In the three months following the Palma attack, the FDS retreated to their strongholds/bases under pressure from Islamic-inspired armed insurgent groups. The military limited itself to defending its bases from the attacks carried out by the insurgents and to carrying out some sporadic aerial bombardments in places identified as bases or insurgent hideouts, but without the corresponding ground deployment to capture combatants. READ MORE