A Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), a research entity on international organized crime, released a study on the union between garimpeiros and terrorists in Cabo Delgado province. 

The document states that one of the first sources of recruitment in Cabo Delgado was linked to garimpeiros. These miners became vulnerable to recruitment by armed groups after the criminalization of their activity as of 1996, which resulted in the arrest of some 3,600 people involved in artisanal mining. 

"Some of the first recruits of the organization carrying out attacks in Cabo Delgado will have been taken from communities of artisanal miners operating in Montepuez," the study reads. 

It is also mentioned that "the first recruits from the area (Montepuez) were attracted by the rhetoric of the insurgent group Al Suna WA Jamah (ASWJ)."