According to Mozambican officials, in the past two months in Mocimboa da Praia in Cabo Delgado province, close to 90 militants have turned themselves in to the government.
A vicious insurgency that has caused a severe humanitarian crisis in northern Mozambique has plagued the region.
During a visit to the province in September, President Filipe Nyusi announced an amnesty for all militants who had turned themselves in.
The militants were well received, according to local administrator Sérgio Cipriano, and the process of rapprochement and reintegration was under progress.
“We ask communities to welcome the repentant as brothers, forgive all wrongs done, leave the past and pick up a new page. They are children of Mocimboa da Praia who return to their homes, to their origins,” he said.
Since 2017, militants have abducted people, beheaded people, and set homes on fire throughout the region, prompting hundreds of thousands of people to flee for their lives.
The insurgency in Mozambique, mainly fought between caused by militants attempting to establish an Islamic state in the region, and Mozambican security forces has been on for several years.
The main insurgent faction is Ansar al-Sunna, a native extremist faction with tenuous international connections. From mid-2018, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has allegedly become active in northern Mozambique as well, and claimed its first attack against Mozambican security forces in June 2019.