Mozambique: EU pledges more help against rebels, cooperation with South Africa

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Mozambique: EU pledges more help against rebels, cooperation with South Africa

6:24 CAT | 31 Jan 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

The European Union is to step up its support for Mozambique and cooperation with South Africa to address what it described as a “terrorist threat” in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of Mozambique, the European Commission announced on Tuesday.

“South Africa is an indispensable actor in a region that is facing a variety of political and security challenges, so we will expand our cooperation on peace and security, especially through EU support for the Southern African Development Community [SADC] and the military mission in Cabo Delgado,” said a commission spokeswoman, Nabila Massrali, at a news conference in Brussels.

The decision, she explained, followed a bilateral meeting that the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, had with South Africa’s government last week.

“The terrorist threat in northern Mozambique has not been totally eliminated and continues to worry us,” Massrali said, stressing that this is why the EU will step up support to Maputo in coordination with Pretoria, particularly through military training missions.

In September last year, she noted, Brussels had increased its support to the Cabo Delgado region with a €15-million package to buy “non-military equipment”.

On Monday, the government in Pretoria announced a SADC meeting, to be held on Tuesday, to discuss the situation in the kingdoms of Swaziland and Lesotho, as well as the conflict in Cabo Delgado.

HR/VP @JosepBorrellF visited #SouthAfrica & #Botswana, where he:

– Co-chaired the 15th EU-South Africa Ministerial Meeting
– Reaffirmed EU commitment to strengthen bilateral ties and to work on regional integration and crises
– Discussed how to stop Russia’s war against Ukraine pic.twitter.com/LWHV4ruF3W

— European External Action Service – EEAS 🇪🇺 (@eu_eeas) January 30, 2023

The province has been plagued by conflict since 2017 that has spread terror among local residents. Armed rebel groups have been looting and massacring in villages and towns across the province, with responsibility for some of these attacks claimed by the local arm of the self-proclaimed Islamic State in the region.

The conflict has already caused more than 4,000 deaths, according to data from The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, and displaced at least 1 million people, according to Mozambique’s own authorities.

Since July 2022, a military offensive by Maputo, with support from Rwanda and later the SADC, appeared to calm the security situation in the region, following years of turmoil, with the government regaining control of localities that had been held by the rebels, such as the town of Mocímboa da Praia, which had been occupied since 2020.

The EU does not ask to choose sides. We just ask all countries to stand on the side of the UN Charter and international law.

I hope that South Africa will use good relations with Russia to convince Russia to stop the senseless war against Ukraine.https://t.co/RxyOIhKZiH pic.twitter.com/hBxm0oF73C

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) January 27, 2023

🔴LIVE
HR/VP @JosepBorrellF opening remarks at 15th South-Africa-European Union Ministerial Dialogue in 🇿🇦 Pretoria, South Africa. https://t.co/gled37xZKg

— European External Action Service – EEAS 🇪🇺 (@eu_eeas) January 27, 2023

Source: Lusa