Mozambique: Nyusi urges offensive action against terrorists in Mecula – Watch

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Mozambique: Nyusi urges offensive action against terrorists in Mecula – Watch

8:29 CAT | 24 Jan 2022

Photo: Conselho Executivo do Niassa

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday instructed the contingent of special forces stationed in Mecula district in the northern province of Niassa to go onto the offensive against the terrorist groups that have crossed into Mecula from the adjacent province of Cabo Delgado and to show no quarter to the enemy.

Speaking in Mecula town, he told the unit of the defence forces stationed there “We don’t want the enemy to believe or to feel that Niassa is a viable space that he can flee to. It should be exactly the opposite”.

He called for “strength, courage, discipline and precision”, urging the troops to solve the problem quickly and to waste time on anything that does not bring solutions.

When the troops are on the defensive, Nyusi said, they may often suffer losses, but when they are on the offensive, it is frequently the enemy that cannot hold its position. He believed that was now happening in Mecula, which in November and December was surprised by terrorist raids.

He did not want to see a repeat in Niassa of the mass displacement of the population that had happened in Cabo Delgado. The answer, the President stressed, was not to depopulate Mecula district, but to provide greater vigilance and more protection.

Nyusi said his government has no intention of abandoning Mecula – for if Mecula were to be abandoned, then tomorrow Sanga (on the shores of Lake Niassa), would be abandoned, or even Matchedje on the frontier with Tanzania.

He told the special forces unit placed in Mecula “You have no barracks. Your barracks is where the enemy is, and your station is where the enemy comes and goes”. He said Mozambican intelligence has been pursuing the enemy and providing information useful for offensive operations in the theatre of operations.

Thanks to the courage of the Mozambican forces, he continued, the enemy was in retreat – but that did not mean the mission in Mecula was over. The troops must remain on the alert, since “direct contact with the enemy could occur at any moment”.

Nyusi urged the local civilian population to take precautions against the Covid-19 pandemic, and warned them to remain permanently vigilant against the possibility of terrorist infiltration into their communities.