Two weeks ago, a local peasant militia known as “Naparama” killed three electoral civic educators in the region of Catupa, in Chiúre district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.

According to reports, the “Naparamas”, who are allies of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) in fighting against the insurgency, mistook the three for Islamist terrorists.

Who are the “Naparamas”?

The “Naparamas” are a peasant militia group that first emerged in the 80s, in the context of the Mozambican civil war. Established by a young traditional healer, Manuel António, from the Pebane district, in the central province of Zambézia, the group used indigenous knowledge, mystic elements and a community sense of belonging to fight the then guerilla rebel movement, Renamo – claiming that he had died and resurrected, António performed traditional rituals on his followers, who believed were immune to bullets.

The “Naparamas” used spears, machetes and bows and arrows to chase Renamo troops from across Zambézia province, recapturing villages previously held and controlled by the rebel guerillas. In most cases, the rebels just ran perhaps convinced by the myth of the “Naparamas” immunity to bullets, which helped dent Renamo’s fighting reputation and enhance the former’s, especially because the government troops had repeatedly failed to defeat the rebels.

By 1991, the “Naparamas” were about 3.000-strong, and extended from the Zambézia province to the northern provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado. Aware of its efficacy in mobilising the population against Renamo, realising that the “Naparamas” were undertaking a function the state was failing to fulfil, government coopted them as their ally in the fight against the rebel movement.

However, as the group grew, it started experiencing a break down in morale, with dissident forces starting to adopt the behaviour of the same enemy they had enlisted to fight against, attacking the population that it had sworn to defend.

Eventually, Manuel António was killed in December 19991, close to Macuse in Zambézia. With his death, the movement crumbled as fast as it had been formed.

The war against the Islamist insurgency

Around 2022, the movement reappeared in some districts of Cabo Delgado as a response to the increase in the massacre of civilians and insurgent incursions – this inspired the establishment of another militia, the Local Force (a group comprising veterans of the national liberation struggle, including adults and youths from the affected regions), after Police Commissioner Bernardino Rafael had called on the population, In December 2022, in Bilibiza, to use spears, machetes, knives, among others, to fight off the insurgents.

“When they enter our fields, what we have to do is chase them down and resist them with knives, machetes and scabbards. And at that point, one has to run and tell the Defence and Security Forces to join in and pursue these terrorists,” said Rafael.

Acknowledging that success against the insurgency required coordination between the FDS, Local Force and the “Naparamas”, in January 2023, Cabo Delgado provincial governor, Valige Tauabo, told the militia that the FDS coordinated any fighting. “In this work of defending the land and the population from terrorism, the FDS coordinate all actions for the protection of our communities.”

Meanwhile, the “Naparamas” carried out some operations and managed to kill some insurgents in Ancuabe earlier in March.

Déjà vu again

However, the “Naparamas” have also been accused of carrying out atrocities. In January 2024, a group of “Naparamas” surrounded and closed down a health centre in Papai, in Namuno district, in Cabo Delgado, where they beat up and stripped naked a nurse, while accusing government of bringing cholera.

The militia also would engage in beating up community leaders and burning people’s houses with impunity.

It would seem as if the “Naparamas” luck ran out when they killed the three electoral civic educators in Catupa, in Chiúre district. The Mozambican Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) has called for the group to be abolished and that the state be held responsible for the death of the three electoral civic educators.

Despite all efforts by the state, its partners and friendly troops, the fight against the insurgency is still a huge challenge, even if President Filipe Nyusi may rant against people and entities who seek interpretations about the phenomenon and who might be behind it in Mozambique.

What is certain is that the resurgence of the “Naparamas” is paving the way for a dangerous precedent in the inferno of the Cabo Delgado war, which could spread to a considerable part of northern Mozambique with the possibility – remote or not – of bands of militia roaming the rural areas, perhaps embracing the insurgent ideology.

The state has stepped in in Cabo Delgado to organize, politically mobilise and equip the Local Force. Why not make a similar effort with regards to the “Naparamas” in order to stave off any future misconduct and ill-discipline, and have them march in step with government in a war which Nyusi says needs “everyone’s unity”?

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