Mozambique attacks: Russia declines to comment on whether it is present, alleging care with information

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique attacks: Russia declines to comment on whether it is present, alleging care with information

12:21 CAT | 17 Feb 2020

Photo: Embaixada da Rússia em Moçambique / Facebook

The Russian ambassador to Mozambique declined to comment on whether there were any Russian combatants in Mozambique helping fight the groups mounting attacks in the north of the country, on the grounds of the sensitivity of such information.

“One of the main rules” in the response “to the phenomenon of terrorism is: the less the terrorists know about cooperation or the action of forces, the better,” Alexander Súrikov said in Maputo on Friday, according to television channel STV.

“In our transparent world,” he pointed out after meeting the president of parliament, the existing transparency “is enough”.

Mozambican Foreign Minister José Pacheco announced in October that Russia had provided military equipment to Mozambique to support government forces in combating armed groups in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country, in what he dubbed a “one-off support” move.

But local and foreign sources have reported, in addition to equipment, the presence of private military forces from Russia, also mentioned among the casualties listed in communiqués by the Islamic State (jihadist) group when claiming attacks.

Alexander Súrikov said that Russia was “ready [to furnish] any form of support or cooperation” that Mozambique might request.

“We must fight terrorism at the beginning, when it appears,” he said, and not wait for it to develop.

The diplomat compared the fight against terrorism to the fight against cancer. “If it takes too long, it is more difficult and dangerous for the health. The response must be energetic, and quick.”

Armed attacks in Cabo Delgado broke out in 2017, allegedly carried out by mosque-goers radicalised by foreigners, according to local Islamic leaders who warned of friction between the faithful at the time.

There has never been a claim of responsibility for the attacks, with the exception of communiqués from the ‘jihadist’ Islamic State group, which since June has been claiming credit for some of them, along with alleged images of the action, but whose presence on the ground experts and authorities consider scarcely credible.

The attacks have already claimed at least 350 lives, and affected 156,400 people through loss of property or being forced to abandon their homes and fields in search of safety, all in a province rich in natural gas and expecting the construction of mega extraction to facilitate its extraction.

Source: Lusa