Watch: Don’t lose focus, Nyusi urges – AIM report | Mozambique

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Watch: Don’t lose focus, Nyusi urges – AIM report | Mozambique

7:31 CAT | 31 Mar 2021

Photo: Noticias

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Wednesday called on Mozambicans to remain calm and not to “lose focus” in response to the islamist terror attack against the town of Palma, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Jihadists linked to the self-styled “Islamic State” attacked Palma a week ago. Fighting has continued sporadically since then, and the Mozambican defence and security forces claim to hold most of the town.

The civilian population of Palma has, however, largely fled. Some have made their way by sea or by air to the provincial capital, Pemba, others to relatively safe towns such as Nangade or to the Tanzanian border.

Speaking at the resort of Ponta de Ouro, on the border with the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal, where he was opening a new delegation of the National Social Security Institute (INSS), Nyusi, in his first public remarks about the attack, said that, although it was not necessarily the largest raid in Cabo Delgado, it took on particular importance because of Palma’s proximity to major foreign investments.

He was referring to the construction of natural gas liquefaction plants by a consortium headed by the French oil and gas company Total in the Afungi Peninsula, about 15 kilometres from Palma town.

“My appeal is simple. Let us not lose focus, let’s not become flustered”, he urged, “let’s deal with the enemy as we have been dealing, let’s deal with the enemy forcefully, as our defence and security forces are doing. Lack of concentration is what our internal and external enemies want”.

Cited by the independent television station STV, Nyusi declared “we must concentrate and advance”.

He assured his audience “we have been following, second by second, what our young people on the ground (i.e. members of the armed forces) have been doing”.