Insurgency and subversion: An analysis of the modes of operation for understanding the attacks in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique

ABSTRACT Resulting from several social, political, economic and above all radical Islamic factors, the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado raised a variety of questions in the national and international system, among them the modus operandi of the group, now called Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jammá. Thus, the present article analyses the way in which the modes of insurgency and subversion help to understand the modus operandi of the Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jammá. For this purpose, a methodological study was established in which the semi-structured interview technique involved officers and documentary analysis for data collection. The results of the study show that the modus operandi of the Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jammá is circumscribed to the organisation of numerous semi-autonomous cells which carry out guerrilla, terrorist and subversive actions. Furthermore, it was highlighted that the conflict was initiated by a minority of individuals subordinate to a radical religious ideology, and the objective of its operationalisation, until then, was carried out in three phases: preparatory, agitation and insurrection.