Minister denies that Mozambique has received military equipment from South Africa

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Minister denies that Mozambique has received military equipment from South Africa

4:44 CAT | 17 Dec 2020

Photo: O País

Reacting to the information circulating recently according to which South Africa has sent military vehicles and helicopters to the northern operational theatre, Minister of National Defence Jaime Bessa Neto has definitively stated that the Mozambique has not received any support in terms of military equipment to combat terrorism in Cabo Delgado.

As he was leaving the Assembly of the Republic after the president’s State of the Nation address, the Minister of National Defence made it known that there are ongoing contacts with various countries and partners to combat the terrorism plaguing some districts of Cabo Delgado province since October 2017.

Minister Neto however denied that Mozambique had received any military equipment from South Africa. “It is not true. Is not true. But we are open to working with South Africa as part of the cooperation we have in the defence and security sector,” the minister said.

But, he added, it was up to Mozambicans to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of terrorist aggression.

“Aid can be in means, in training, in the area of intelligence and other military areas,” he declared, adding that “aid can be of various natures, as long as it does not affect or remove the participation of Mozambicans in the battle for the countryside, because the responsibility for the defence of the country is ours (…)”.

Minister Neto said fighting with a view to curbing the actions of the armed group in the north continues, while the number of people internally displaced by terrorists in Cabo Delgado is increasing every day, with the government’s latest figure, 570,000.

By Amandio Borges

Source: O País