Mozambique: EU says it is looking into supporting the security sector

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Mozambique: EU says it is looking into supporting the security sector

3:54 CAT | 03 Nov 2020

File photo. Lusa

The ambassador of the European Union) in Maputo said on Monday that the EU was looking into what type of support it could provide Mozambique in the fight against armed groups in the north of the country.

“We are looking, jointly, into what concrete help we can provide in the scope of security,” António Sánchez-Benedito Gaspar said.

The diplomat was answering questions from journalists about the EU’s response to the Mozambican government’s request for help in fighting the armed groups that have been carrying out attacks in the province of Cabo Delgado for three years.

Gaspar noted that security cooperation was one of three dimensions of the EU’s partnership with Mozambique.

Another aspect is short-term humanitarian assistance to the thousands of internally displaced persons due to the armed conflict, which is already underway.

The third dimension is related to support to development programmes aimed at reducing poverty and promoting employment, especially among the young.

Gaspar said that the approach to development had received a new impetus with the recent launch of the Integrated Development Agency of the North (ADIN), a Mozambican state entity created to boost the social and economic development of the three provinces in the north of Mozambique – Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula.

“We share the enormous concern for the situation in Cabo Delgado, which has been expressed at different levels by the European Council and the European Parliament, through different resolutions,” Gaspar noted.

The EU was exploring all possibilities of support in combating armed violence in Cabo Delgado in response to Mozambique’s request, the EU ambassador added.

The province of Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, has been the scene of armed attacks by forces classified as terrorists for three years now. Estimates of the number of deaths range from 1,000 to 2,000.

The Mozambican prime minister said in parliament on Wednesday that “terrorist actions” had already internally displaced 435,000 people and that more than 10,000 had fled to Pemba. the provincial capital, in the past two weeks alone.

Source: Lusa