Mozambique: Two terrorists killed in Nangade – AIM

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Mozambique: Two terrorists killed in Nangade – AIM

7:45 CAT | 22 Nov 2021

Photo: Lusa

Mozambican defence minister Cristovao Chume on Friday announced the deaths of two terrorists in Nangade district, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, in clashes with the defence and security forces.

Speaking to reporters after closing a course for high ranking officers at the Armando Guebuza Higher Institute of Defence Studies (ISEDEF). Chume said “I was informed only this morning that our forces have put out of action two members of the enemy and have seized some weapons”. He did not say how much weaponry had been captured.

He said this operation showed that the Mozambican forces, with their allies from Rwanda and SADC (Southern African Development Community) “are following the enemy’s movements step by step”.

He warned that the country “must have a lot of patience and let our forces and those of our allies continue clear-up operations so that we can say that we have really re-established total peace”.

Gains for the Mozambican forces were visible in the Northern Operational Theatre, Chume said, notably in the massive return of displaced people to their homes in the districts of Palma, Mocimboa da Praia, Macomia and Nangade.

National and international organisations were present on the ground in those districts providing humanitarian assistance, he added, “but we are not yet in a state of total peace”.

Cabo Delgado remains an area of military operations, in which the Mozambican forces and their allies continue to face the enemy day after day – but not on the same scale as earlier in the year, he said. The enemy was now operating as small groups of terrorists, moving from one area to another, in their attempts to attack villages.

“Currently the great challenge is, how can we follow the strategy of the enemy, who has decided to switch his tactics from attacking in large groups, to moving in small groups which are very difficult to control and accompany”, added Chume.

The great responsibility of the defence and security forces, he added, lay in “anticipating the intentions of the enemy”.
In closing the officers’ course, Chume declared “it is important to understand the factors, the motivations, the modus operandi, the associated crimes and the metamorphosis of terrorism, so that, in advance, we can define prophylactic and combat measures”.

He stressed that ISEDEF should improve its curriculum “to allow easy adaptation to the changed and versatile nature of the current threats”.

The presence of Rwandan and SADC forces in Cabo Delgado should not be long term, said Chume. A great responsibility fell on the shoulders of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM) to defend the gains made in the Northern Operational Theatre, thus allowing a safe departure of the allied forces.

He believed ISEDEF would have a role to play in this, to ensure the Mozambican forces could handle robustly the departure of their allies.

“You don’t study in order to present theories”, Chume told the course graduates. “You study in order to present practical solutions. I repeat – the country will not have a lot of patience with us. The country wants immediate peace”.

Source: AIM