As jihadist fighters advanced in northern Mozambique, Henriques Laba saw only one escape route.

“We fled into the bush,” said Laba, head of Mute village.

“We ate what we could – monkeys, elephants.”

Laba survived a jihadist offensive last year that was eventually crushed, leaving the region deeply shaken to this day.

In March 2021, militants from the Islamic State group attacked the port city of Palma – the jewel in the crown of a gas project said would shower Cabo Delgado province with good jobs and much-needed infrastructure.

Dozens of people were killed and tens of thousands fled their homes, some of them, like Laba, taking shelter in the countryside looking for wild animals.

The attack marked a turning point in a five-year Islamist insurgency that led to the deployment of Rwandan forces and troops from other African countries a few months later.

The security forces have since regained control of much of the territory, but the administrative center of Palma is almost in ruins and most Western-led projects to exploit the gas – the largest deposits in sub-Saharan Africa – have been suspended indefinitely.

The suffering in poor, remote and still insecure Cabo Delgado remained out of sight for most of the world’s people.

But among local people, the question of why and how their region became embroiled in an Islamist insurgency is a source of fear and debate.

“Some people think the problem is poverty, while the government blames foreigners who came and seduced young people,” explained Jonas Alvaro Jose, one of the few teachers relocated to the district after the jihadists were expelled last year returned to Palma.

Only two schools are currently open in the area.

“It’s easier to manipulate and recruit young people for little money when most remain uneducated and can only hold on to their religious beliefs,” Jose said.

Cabo Delgado has the highest illiteracy rate in Mozambique – one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the US development agency USAID, about two out of three people can neither read nor write.

“No youth from my village joined the bandits,” Laba said. “But they mainly recruit Mozambicans, so I think poverty drives them to join their ranks.

“I hope the government will make efforts to prevent this.”

The province is the only majority Muslim part of Mozambique.

The capital Maputo is more than 2,000 kilometers away.

“The government has significantly increased its budget for the northern provinces, showing that there is awareness of the issue,” said Mirko Manzoni, the UN special envoy for Mozambique.

But the lack of information about the inner workings of the jihadist group – known locally as al-Shabab, although it has no links to the Somali fighters of a similar name – is hampering the fight for young minds, he added.

“We have to weaken their recruiting ability, and it’s not just a question of economic possibilities.”

Violence has subsided in the months since foreign troops deployed to support the Mozambican army.

But sporadic attacks continue and the jihadists have begun to invade further south.

In Olumbi, a village a few dozen kilometers from Palma, most of the houses have been razed to the ground. The settlement is mostly Muslim, but the attackers made no distinctions.

“What happened to me also happened to my neighbors,” said Najum Ntete, a trader who lost his home and several family members.

“We lack food and we can’t make ends meet,” Ntete said.

Humanitarian aid has been slow to arrive as the roads are still threatened by insurgents.

For some, foreign forces are the only lifeline.

“If the Rwandans go, so will I,” said Markito, a local resident who used only his first name, repeating a refrain often heard across the province.