'Dyck Advisory Group to investigate after Amnesty says it shot at civilians in Mozambique’ 1 March 2021

A South African private military firm will hire outside lawyers to look into its activities in Mozambique, it said, after Amnesty International accused it of firing indiscriminately on civilians while helping the government fight an insurgency. In a report issued on Tuesday, Amnesty accused both the government and the insurgents of war crimes against civilians, including killings, dismemberment, torture and abductions.

…The government has hired South African private military firm Dyck Advisory Group to help it fight the Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama insurgents, known locally as Al-Shabaab, who have declared their allegiance to Islamic State. Mozambique has previously denied accusations that its soldiers had committed atrocities, saying killings blamed on government forces were carried out by Islamist insurgents impersonating troops. Mozambique’s Ministry of Interior General Command did not respond to phone and emailed request for comment from Reuters on the Amnesty report. An official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the government would respond to the allegations later.

…The report accused Dyck Advisory Group staff of opening fire indiscriminately on civilians while pursuing suspected fighters. Lionel Dyck, the founder of the company, told Reuters: “We take these allegations very seriously and we are going to put an independent legal team in there shortly to do a board of inquiry and look at what we are doing.” He declined to give further details of the group’s mission in Mozambique. According to Amnesty, insurgents had abducted young women and children, including young girls. “….Fighters routinely kill civilians, loot their homes, and then burn them down using petrol.”