The Secretary of State in Niassa, Dinis Vilanculo, says there are strange movements in some districts of that province, which could be terrorists fleeing from the neighboring province of Cabo Delgado, at a time when analysts are discussing what is happening in northern Mozambique, whether it is terrorism or insurgency.

Vilanculo, who was speaking at the meeting of the Council of State Representation Services, said that such movements were taking place in at least six districts of Niassa, including Mecula, which has recently been the target of jihadist attacks, one of which, according to the press, took place on November 29.

"We're worried about this; we have to step up our vigilance, because they could be terrorists coming from Cabo Delgado province," he said, quoted by VOA.

Meanwhile, Renamo spokesman José Manteigas says that making this statement, without presenting concrete measures to stop these movements, "is regrettable, and it means that the situation of terrorism is spreading throughout the country and is putting Mozambicans in an uproar".

Some political analysts say that the movement of insurgents in Niassa and Nampula could be the result of offensives by Rwandan, Mozambican and Southern African Development Community (SADC) troops in Cabo Delgado, where, according to the Minister of National Defense, Cristóvão Chume, "the terrorists no longer have fixed bases".

About a week ago, another military contingent arrived in Mozambique to join the one that had already been in the country since 2021, to help Mozambican troops fight the insurgency in Cabo Delgado.

It should be noted that the Mozambican state assumes that what is happening in the north of the country is terrorism and not an insurgency, a position with which the researcher at the Institute for Defense and Security Studies in Africa, Borges Namirre, disagrees, for whom, "what we have there is an insurgency that uses terrorism as a means of action".

For Namirre, this is an insurgency "that must be understood as an armed uprising against the state, sometimes using terrorism as a means of action; when the insurgents attack a position of the Defense and Security Forces they are not committing terrorism, this only happens when they attack civilians".

However, for political analyst Moisés Mabunda, what is happening in northern Mozambique is more terrorism than insurgency, "because I can't understand the logic of someone who, being at odds with the state, sets out to behead women, children, young people and the elderly".

For his part, Calton Cadeado, a specialist in security issues and lecturer at Joaquim Chissano University, says that he is reticent about the Mozambican state's position on the situation in northern Mozambique because, at the moment, there is a mixture of several things.

"There's a mixture of acts of sabotage, guerrilla warfare, organized crime and terrorism; the state assumes it's terrorism, but if we discuss what terrorism is, we can have a lot of doubts," says the academic.

On Thursday, the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted military assistance measures, including a sum of 20 million euros for the Rwandan defense force deployed in Mozambique.

The money is intended to help purchase equipment and cover the costs of maintaining strategic air routes to support the Rwandan displacement in Cabo Delgado.