Mozambique: Government says it never asked for military support to fight terrorism in Cabo Delgado – O País

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Mozambique: Government says it never asked for military support to fight terrorism in Cabo Delgado – O País

3:52 CAT | 09 Dec 2020

Photo: O País

The government says it has never asked other countries for military support in fighting terrorists in Cabo Delgado. According to Council of Ministers spokesman Filimão Suazi, any requests will depend on the limits of the country’s sovereignty and the reasonableness of the support.

“As part of the exercise of our sovereignty, we do not directly bind to the comments made by one country or another. If you recall, at the meeting which took place between Her Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs and several cooperation partners, as well as with the international community accredited in the country, this matter has been treated with due care,” Filimão Suazi said yesterday.

“The Government made it public when it was time for a formal request for support to be made, with the limitations which were stated,” Suazi, who is also deputy minister of justice, stressed. ” I believe it did not include the issue of support from the military point of view as such.”

The spokesman for this Tuesday’s Cabinet said it was normal for there to be comments and reactions from countries. However, “any absorption of such comments domestically will have to understand the limits of the exercise of our sovereignty and what is reasonable to expect from the support of others in our condition,” he concluded.

When asked at the usual Tuesday briefing about the sending of armoured vehicles to Mozambique by South Africa, Suazi said that it was never the government’s policy to make the treatment of the issue of terrorism in Cabo Delgado a secret.

“In the announcements that we have made, in the appropriate channels, about the type of support that we are receiving, that we are asking for and that we are accepting, that question can be answered very precisely. We, as the Government, and you journalists, must have the necessary restraint in the way we deal with these matters,” the Cabinet spokesman said.

The Council of Ministers yesterday updated the number of persons displaced by terrorist attacks in the province of Cabo Delgado and in the centre of the country to more than 570,000, equivalent to the entire population of the city of Beira.

“We are talking about 570,696 people – around 560,626 in Cabo Delgado and 970 in the centre of the country,” Suazi said.

The Government also addressed the emergency situation related to the rainy season, saying that there are 23,827 people affected, members of some 5,281 families. According to this latest update, 36 people were injured and 33 died, 15 of them swept away by floodwaters, nine killed by collapsing walls and nine by lightning strikes.

Source: O País