Ibo (''Kisiwa cha Ibo'', in Swahili) is one of the Quirimbas Islands in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

off northern

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. It is part of

Cabo Delgado Province Cabo Delgado is the northernmost province of Mozambique. It has an area of and a population of 2,320,261 (2017). It borders the Mtwara Region in the neighbouring country of Tanzania, and the provinces of Nampula and Niassa. The Province is ri ...

. It grew as a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

trading port.

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

reportedly rested on the island in 1502. The island was fortified in 1609 by the Portuguese. In the late eighteenth century, Portuguese colonialists built the Fort of São João, which still survives, and the town, as a

slave port Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, became the second most important in the region after Mozambique Island. The island is now a far quieter place, known for its

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exact synonyms, as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that t ...

s. During the

war of independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

against Portugal, many members of

FRELIMO FRELIMO (; from , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It has governed the country since its independence from Portugal in 1975. Founded in 1962, FRELIMO began as a nationalist movement fighting for the self-determination ...

and other nationalist organisations were imprisoned and killed at the fort. The

first president First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of independent Mozambique stated in 1983 that "every palm tree on the island is fertilised by the bodies of the Mozambicans who were betrayed and killed by

PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...

agents". Ibo forms part of the Quirimbas National Park and is linked by

dhow Dhow (; ) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Typically sporting long thin hulls, dhows are trading vessels ...

s to the mainland at Tandanhangue. In April 2019, Cyclone Kenneth hit the island and it was reported that 90% of the homes were destroyed. During March 2024, Al-Shabaab jihadists reportedly seized the island after clashing with expelled forces from Quirimba island (also under control of the militants), forcing the remaining FADM members to flee towards the towns of Pemba and Quissanga. Some locals of the island denounced the government and local authorities of ''abandoning'' them.Suspected Islamic State Mozambique (IS-M/Shabaab Cult) Militants Armed Assault on Ibo Island, Macomia, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique – TracTerrorism
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References

See also