Mozambique: Captured terrorists assisting Armed Forces – AIM report | Watch

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Mozambique: Captured terrorists assisting Armed Forces – AIM report | Watch

10:23 CAT | 11 Feb 2022

Defence Minister Cristóvão Chume was speaking to journalists shortly after the Cape Verdean Colonel Armindo Alcides Nogueira Sá Miranda (right) took office as the new director of the Centre for Strategic Analysis of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). [Screen grab: MIramar)

Mozambican Defence Minister Cristovao Chume told reporters on Wednesday that terrorists captured in operations in the northern province of Cabo Delgado are cooperating with the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM) and their allies.

“We are investigating”, said Chume, “and nowadays some of the terrorists are working with our forces, and those of SADC (Southern African Development Community) and of Rwanda”. These apparently repentant terrorists were revealing the location of jihadist bases, and indicating the sites of arms caches.

Chume was speaking to journalists shortly after the Cape Verdean Colonel Armindo Alcides Nogueira Sá Miranda took office as the new director of the Maputo-based Centre for Strategic Analysis of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP).

The Minister said that suspected terrorists are first interrogated, but those who do not appear to have terrorist links are then released and re-inserted into their communities.

Asked about the legal justification for arming local militias to help the armed forces in the defence of Cabo Delgado, Chume said “those people, during the armed national liberation struggle, freed this people, they freed this country. They are the same people who today are once again are taking up arms to support our country and our communities”.

Chume pointed out that these fighters asked the government for guns in order to defend their villages, and their work “is bringing about the desired results”.

But some lawyers have claimed that arming civilians is illegal, and even that the Mozambican state could be held responsible for the acts of these militias, normally referred to as “local forces”.

Chume urged the lawyers to support the government and all those involved in the fight against terrorism, in order to search for “the best legal solutions”.

He said he was not dismissing legal issues, but in Cabo Delgado the country was facing matters of life or death. “At a later moment, we can discuss how we approach this”, added Chume.

Watch the Miramar report.