The first half of October 2017 was a particularly challenging period for Mozambique, with a new security risk emerging from home-grown terrorism unrelated to the RENAMO rebel group. For the period of 1 to 15 October 2017, there were 46 critical incidents in Mozambique, resulting in 63 deaths and 112 arrests. The share of Human & Social-related incidents was 28.26%, followed by criminality with 19.57%.

Nineteen people were killed on 5 October in attacks by a domestic Islamist militant group based in Cabo Delgado, with most of those killed being the attackers. Four policemen have also been killed in a string of attacks on police stations in a small town in the north of the country. Dozens were arrested and authorities continue to analyze and investigate the incident. On the political front, Filipe Nyusi was re-elected president of FRELIMO, and is now standing for re-election as President of the Republic in 2019. Nyusi will square off with RENAMO opposition party leader Afonso Dhlakama as campaigning for the presidential elections heats up. Read more in our Mozambique Bi-weekly Summary.