Mozambique: Business forum calls for SADC, African Union urgent intervention

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Mozambique: Business forum calls for SADC, African Union urgent intervention

3:45 CAT | 13 Apr 2021

Palma survivors in Pemba. [File photo: Lusa]

The Pan-African Business Forum on Tuesday advocated for a swift and urgent Southern African intervention in Mozambique, considering that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) should have already intervened.

“It is SADC’s responsibility to come together and give the best support that Mozambique needs and they have to do everything they can, because if they allow another day of chaos, then it will show that we are not prepared to deliver as Africans,” said António Martins Santana, the business forum’s special envoy to Mozambique.

“It is very critical and the first priority for us is to see Mozambique’s problems solved without costing more lives, and we will mobilise the necessary resources to help the country,” he said, criticising SADC and AU for not having done more to help the country deal with the insurgent crisis in the north of the territory.

He said that “the Forum will send the vice president to meet with the President of Mozambique, and also with the Minister of Defence,” and also announced meetings with other defence ministers of countries in the region that have business interests in the country.

“Our main outcome has to be peace, before the problem grows to Zimbabwe, South Africa and other countries,” he concluded, in statements quoted by the South African press.

SADC on Thursday in Maputo announced it was sending a “technical team” to Mozambique to assess the country’s needs to combat the armed groups carrying out attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Armed violence in Cabo Delgado began over three years ago but escalated again a fortnight ago when armed groups attacked the town of Palma, some six kilometres from the multi-million dollar natural gas projects.

The attacks caused dozens of deaths and forced thousands of Palma residents to flee, worsening a humanitarian crisis that affects around 700,000 people in the province, according to United Nations figures, and with around 2,500 deaths since the conflict began, according to Lusa.

Source: Lusa