Yesterday I sat down to watch England play rugby against Ireland at Twickenham and felt vaguely uncomfortable at the start. The cause of my discomfort was seeing a number of the English players ‘taking the knee’ in support of Black Lives Matter.

I am sure those players were acting in all sincerity but is such overt ‘virtue signalling’ really a part of international sport, particularly rugby union which although once elitist, now has players from all over the world in every major team.

And do any of these players or other passionate supporters of the BLM movement care about the carnage taking place among black people in Africa? Admittedly, it is almost entirely black on black carnage but if all black lives matter, why is it not coming to world attention? Where are the news reports from foreign correspondents? Where is the BBC – The Guardian or other ‘noble’ outlets of the leftist media? Where for that matter are Black Lives Matter themselves? Let us please stop publicly demonstrating how virtuous and caring we all are and get some action to help other less privileged black people. Their lives surely matter too.

Take the situation right now in the Cabo Delgado province of Northern Mozambique. The western media and indeed, western governments remain curiously silent about the rapidly escalating crisis in that region where Christians are being brutally murdered by Islamic forces with ties to powerful sister movements in Syria, Afghanistan and other middle eastern countries. Let me give you just one example.

Just over a week ago in a gruesome show of force, some fifty people, including women and children were beheaded in front of their fellow citizens in the predominately Christian area of Muidumbe. Their only ‘crime’ was that they were practising Christians. The United Nations has called for an investigation but I don’t think that is likely to take place. It might prove embarrassing to various governments.

One of the main reasons for the problem in Cabo Delgado is that the Mozambican government has for many years treated the people of this area with contempt, triggering wide spread resentment and providing fertile ground for insurrection. The country’s law enforcement and defence forces are of no practical use, having long been involved with criminal syndicates moving drugs, ivory and precious stones out of the country.

Sadly, (I am with permission quoting directly from a piece written yesterday by my friend Hannes Wessels of Africa Unauthorised) as with so many of the woes the continent faces everywhere, this situation has been aided and abetted over many years by feckless European politicians and bureaucrats, who have poured mountains of aid money into the country. They have spent years watching it being routinely siphoned off into the coffers of the corrupt and nowhere near where it is supposed to go in the alleviation of poverty and infrastructural development. In a recent display of reckless borrowing the Frelimo government somehow secured a $2 billion loan through Credit Suisse and other banks, ostensibly to boost maritime security, which is exactly what is presently required, but the money seems to have disappeared. Now the country is pleading bankruptcy and unable to defend itself.

Unfortunately for those now living in terror in northern Mozambique, relief is unlikely to come anytime soon, if ever. This after all, is the age of George Floyd, and Europeans are forbidden to visit any form of violence upon black people, irrespective of the nobility of the cause. For the politicians abroad, an image of a British or an American soldier kneeling on the neck of an angry Islamist insurgent who may have just chopped someone’s head off, is a potential nightmare to be avoided at all costs. And while this conflict is certainly underpinned now by an anti-Christian agenda, Christians virtually everywhere, following the lead of Pope Francis, are begging forgiveness for being born, and in no mood to confront those who seek their elimination. In an unusual development, France’s President Macron recently spoke out against Islamic militancy in his country but his voice is a lonely one; the silence from Germany’s Merkel and Britain’s Johnson has been deafening.

So, with the Western powers too frightened to be part of a decisive intervention in Mozambique, this leaves one wondering where salvation from violent tyranny might hail from and it looks like the only hope lies with the villains of yesteryear – former Rhodesian and South African servicemen who remain capable and willing to once again risk their lives for a cause.

Men like former Rhodesian soldier, Colonel Lionel Dyck, former South African Colonel Eeben Barlow and a company known as Airborne Services which is made up of highly experienced, former Rhodesian and South African soldiers, airmen and intelligence operatives.

‘We have been watching developments in Cabo Delgado very closely since the trouble started,’ says former Rhodesian Special Branch officer Ken Bird, ‘and we have no doubt we have the skills to contribute to a solution. This is a typical Islamist movement acting with unity of purpose and very aggressively; this is not the case with the mainly Christian enemy. This will gain traction with the Yao (Sufi) in Malawi and the Makonde of southern Tanzania who are also predominantly Muslim. All the ingredients for an east African caliphate are in place. The collateral expansion will likely involve the use of car-bombs detonated on selected targets in non-Islamic areas.

‘On our team we have people with unequalled experience in this sort of theatre and we would like to engage with the authorities in turning this problem around but maybe our provenance is a problem. Very frustrating being on the periphery because this is a war with massive implications and potentially, a catastrophic result for the region if not addressed.’

Eeben Barlow is another one who does not mince his words, ‘This is spreading like wildfire and my immediate concern is that the Cahora Bassa dam may soon fall under the control of the insurgents which will be a game changer, not only for Mozambique, but also for South Africa, Zimbabwe and the sub-continent. I am very worried about how this will impact on my own country and our government must react soon and react decisively or we are on track towards a disaster.’

Which all brings me back to my original question, ‘Do all black lives matter or only those from prosperous western nations?’