Mozambique: Terrorism "one of the most heinous of crimes"
File photo: DW
Mozambique is in danger of becoming a “second Mali”, or even a “second Somalia”, Mozambican researcher Salvador Forquilha has told DW Africa, in an interview published on Thursday (April 1).
Salvador Forquilha, a researcher at the Institute of Social and Economic Studies (IESE), an independent research organisation based in Maputo, says that the conflict in Cabo Delgado has entered a new phase.
Foreign military intervention is being considered, but it would not solve the problems in Cabo Delgado, Forquilha says.
DW Africa: You say that the conflict in Cabo Delgado has entered a new phase. What do you mean?
Salvador Forquilha (SF): Yes, the conflict has now entered a new phase. It seems that this is a phase in which we have a very direct threat, taking into account the latest events in the area, namely the latest attacks on Palma, in which the pressure for new actors to enter the conflict is becoming increasingly more and more evident.
DW Africa: And do you think that a foreign military intervention would solve the problems of Cabo Delgado?
SF: I don’t think so. I think that the call for foreign intervention reveals a distorted way of looking at things. It even seems to me that foreign military intervention could make the problem worse. An external military intervention could speed up the process of building a narrative, easily be mobilised by ‘jihadists’, of the government of ‘being at the service of foreign interests’. So it does not seem to me that the intervention of foreigners can help to solve the problem.
DW Africa: In Cabo Delgado, France’s economic interests are at stake, namely Total, and a commentator, French historian Michel Cahen, has said that there is a risk that France, by intervening, would transform Mozambique into a second Mali. Do you agree?
SF: I believe I do. Anyway, it wouldn’t be far from that. Mali is an example, but looking at what happens in other places, like Somalia, for example, I would say that, whenever there is external intervention, the situation gets even more complicated.
DW Africa: Do you agree with the Mozambican government’s strategy of hiring foreign mercenaries?
SF: No, I definitely don’t. First, mercenaries weaken a country’s sovereignty. This is a big problem. It would be much more rational to direct the resources that are spent on mercenaries to strengthening the capacity of the Defence and Security Forces of Mozambique.
DW Africa: What do you think about the sending, in the coming weeks, of 60 military personnel from Portugal’s special forces, who are expected to train the Mozambican armed forces, under the bilateral agreement between the two countries?
SF: Any help in terms of reinforcing the capacity of the armed forces is welcome, but it seems to me more of a palliative measure than the solution to the problem. This reveals one thing: our country is chasing after the damage. The effort that the country is now making to solve the problem seems to me a little late. This effort should have been made much earlier, at the very beginning, when it was thought that what was happening in Cabo Delgado was just a disturbance of public order, a matter of banditry. That was the appropriate time to intervene energetically. But that was not done. They took too long. They were quite late.
DW Africa: President Filipe Nyusi has broken his silence, arguing that the destabilisation of the north of the country feeds the interests of external enemies. Do you think the president matched the gravity of the situation?
SF: I think the situation is so serious, so serious, that it would demand much more from the president. So far, he has not made an energetic and strong intervention, capable of convincing Mozambicans that the government is, in fact, on the ground looking for solutions.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.