Mozambique: Army alone won’t solve northern insurgent problem – analysts

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Mozambique: Army alone won’t solve northern insurgent problem – analysts

6:40 CAT | 17 Mar 2021

File photo: DW

Mozambican analyst Fernando Lima said that the maximum potential of the Mozambican armed forces is yet to be achieved in Cabo Delgado, on the day that the new Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces takes office.

The military response has always been within reach of the armed forces, but it is necessary to adapt them to the required challenges. This means putting the right men in the right places, Lima told Lusa.

On the other hand, those running the Armed and Defence Forces of Mozambique (FADM) cannot look at the conflict in the north of the country in a strictly military context, he said, adding that they had to understand the specific nature of the type of terrorism, with other aspects.

The activist and director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, Adriano Nuvunga, said they needed to strengthen the capacities and qualities of the armed forces for their operations on the ground, but ignoring the region’s political and social problems is a mistake.

“The multinational companies that operate in this region usually refer to spending millions on local content, but anyone who goes and analyses it will realise that all this money stayed in Maputo. So there is clearly a feeling of marginalisation,” he said.

“Fundamentally, we are facing a problem of governance, which involves local development. Historically, this has been neglected, and these communities have the right to development,” Nuvunga warned.

The director of the non-governmental organisation Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), Edson Cortez, said that, for example, “Cabo Delgado province never received any more money to deal with the emergency it is facing.

Although the current changes are a consequence of the death of the previous Chief of Staff, Eugénio Mussa, Cortez said the Mozambican executive had paid much more attention to military action concerning the social and economic dimension that is fuelling the conflict.

“The way to stop this conflict should not only be military. It must be a multifaceted strategy that guarantees local development, preventing more young people from the affected communities joining the armed groups,” said the director of the non-governmental organisation Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), Edson Cortez.

The government has been trying to promote local development projects through the Northern Integrated Development Agency (ADIN), a state entity founded in September 2020 to cover Mozambique’s northern region’s three provinces. However, the impact is not yet noticeable, analysts say – with ADIN still in a start-up phase.

Last week, the Mozambican president appointed Joaquim Rivas Mangrasse as the new Chief of General Staff. He was sworn in today, replacing Eugénio Mussa, who died of illness in February three weeks after being appointed to the post.

The armed violence in Cabo Delgado, which is home to Africa’s biggest private multinational investment in natural gas exploration, is causing a humanitarian crisis with more than 2,000 deaths and 670,000 people displaced, without housing or food.

Some of the incursions were claimed by the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State between June 2019 and November 2020, but the origin of the attacks remains under debate.

Source: Lusa