Mozambique: No incompatibility between EU, African support missions in Cabo Delgado – Portuguese government

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: No incompatibility between EU, African support missions in Cabo Delgado – Portuguese government

8:48 CAT | 06 Aug 2021

File photo: TSF

Portugal and Spain have welcomed the commitment of Mozambique’s neighbouring countries to the resolution of the conflict in Cabo Delgado and rejected the existence of incompatibilities between the European and African support missions because of their different nature.

The situation in Mozambique was one of the themes of the working meeting between the foreign ministers of Portugal and Spain held on Wednesday in Lisbon, with Augusto Santos Silva stressing at the end that the European Union (EU) mission in the African country is not combat-related.

“It is a mission of support and military training and education, not combat,” he said, when asked if the European participation still made sense, given the presence on the ground of troops from Mozambique’s neighbouring countries.

“We Europeans have always understood that the participation of Mozambique’s neighbours was very important,” said Santos Silva, who thanked his counterpart, José Manuel Albares, for Madrid’s support for Lisbon’s proposal to set up the EU mission.

The Spanish minister also praised the involvement of neighbouring countries, which “know the terrain and have an interest in the stability and development of Mozambique.

“The important thing is to find synergies so that Mozambique moves forward on the path that Mozambicans want,” said Albares.

Armed groups have terrorised Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province since 2017, with some of the attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State, with a tally of more than 3,100 dead and more than 817,000 displaced.

On July 12, EU foreign ministers approved the establishment of a military training mission in Mozambique to “train and support the Mozambican Armed Forces” in “restoring security” in Cabo Delgado (north-east of the country).

Commanded by Portuguese general Nuno Lemos Pires, the European mission force is due on the ground in October.

Since the beginning of August, the Mozambican defence and security forces have had the support of 1,000 soldiers and police from Rwanda in the fight against armed groups in Cabo Delgado, as part of a bilateral agreement between Maputo and Kigali.

As well as Rwanda, Mozambique will have support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in a mandate for a “joint force on standby” approved on 23 June, with troops from some member countries already on the ground.

The number of troops that SADC will send to Mozambique is not yet known, but experts from the organisation, who were in Cabo Delgado, admitted in April that the mission should be made up of around 3,000 soldiers.

Source: Lusa