Mozambique: Eliminate terrorism before it spreads, says minister – AIM report

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Mozambique: Eliminate terrorism before it spreads, says minister – AIM report

11:42 CAT | 01 Dec 2020

Photo: Twitter / @CesarGuedesF

Mozambican Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo on Friday stressed the urgency of containing and eradicating terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, before it develops a potential to spread to other regions.

Speaking in Maputo, at a meeting with representatives of United Nations agencies accredited in Mozambique, Macamo said she believes that terrorism in Cabo Delgado originated and is inspired from outside the country.

This position is shared by Mirko Manzoni, the Personal Representative in Mozambique of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who, in a recent interview, said that while most of the fighters in the initial wave of attacks in late 2017 were Mozambicans, nowadays the majority of the jihadists “come from Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They now have very sophisticated weapons. This insurrection reminds me of the situation in Mali in 2012, before the jihadists marched on the capital Bamako, precipitating the intervention of France”.

Macamo told the Friday meeting “we believe that this is a phenomenon that requires collective and global efforts”.
She urged the country’s cooperation partners not to hold back from condemning the terrorist forces in a clear and unequivocal manner, and to provide humanitarian assistance for the people who have lost everything due to terrorist raids.

Macamo said that terrorism has been at the centre of the government’s concerns since the first raids by jihadists in the Cabo Delgado district of Mocimboa da Praia in October 2017. She added that, to date, the true motivations of the terrorists are not known, and neither are their command and leadership structure or their sources of finance.

Nonetheless, she added, the behaviour and the rhetoric of the Cabo Delgado terrorists are consistent with how radical terrorist groups operate across the globe.
“The atrocities perpetrated by these groups have killed innocent people and have forced our citizens living in the affected areas to flee from their places of origin, without taking anything, and to seek safety elsewhere”, said the Minister.

As for the armed attacks in the central provinces of Manica and Sofala, carried out by the self-styled “Renamo Military Junta”, Macamo said these would not distract the government from the demobilisation and disarmament of the Renamo militia, and the reintegration of its members into society.

This process (known by the acronym “DDR”) was pressing ahead, she said, with the active participation of the UN, and despite the violence of the Military Junta.

Macamo added that some of the Junta’s men have recently abandoned their leader, Mariano Nhongo, in order to take advantage of the DDR and the assistance offered to those willing to lay down their guns and be demobilised.

She regretted that the junta has refused to enter a dialogue with the government, spurning the unilateral, seven day truce offered by President Filipe Nyusi at the end of October.

“Our posture remains one of promoting dialogue”, she said. “We appeal to the two wings of Renamo to find points of consensus to overcome their political divergences. It is not just that the defenceless population of the centre of the country should be held hostage to the interests of the so-called Military Junta”.

A S.Exa. Verónica Dlhovo, Ministra do #MINEC, e a Sra. Myrta Kaulard, Coordenadora da #ONU, lideraram reunião conjunta p/ avaliar e monitorar os progressos da parceria entre 🇲🇿🇺🇳. Ao todo, US$953 milhões por meio de 386 projetos são implementados em 10 das 11 províncias do país pic.twitter.com/HgS31CJqOX

— Nações Unidas em Moçambique (@ONUMocambique) November 27, 2020

UNDAF Steering Committee 2020 great partnership 🇲🇿 🇺🇳 and working together as One! @ONUMocambique @CandiceWelsch @B_Hansford @UNODC_ROSAF @UNODC @MarcoTeixeiraUN @UNODC_MCP @UNODC_TPB pic.twitter.com/0gZieDtWDV

— Cesar Guedes (@CesarGuedesF) November 27, 2020