Mozambique: Expanding violence a security challenge – PM | Watch

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Mozambique: Expanding violence a security challenge – PM | Watch

7:36 CAT | 11 Nov 2022

The prime minister was speaking at a meeting with the decentralised governance bodies in Cabo Delgado province. [Photo: O País]

Mozambique’s Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane acknowledged on Thursday that the expansion of armed attacks to the south of Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country, poses a challenge to security in the region, advocating intensified vigilance.

“This trend [of armed attacks] to the south means that it creates more challenges [for security], we have to have the capacity to be able to work in this environment,” Maleiane said.

The prime minister was speaking at a meeting with the decentralised governance bodies in Cabo Delgado province.

Maleiane said that the communities and authorities should increase their vigilance to prevent the spread of the action of armed groups.

Despite the persistence of violence, the prime minister said that the success of the fight against insurgents allowed the restoration of normality in several districts of Cabo Delgado province and the boosting of social and economic development actions in areas that were never attacked by the rebels.

“Notwithstanding this framework in terms of security, what they are doing, they are doing very well,” he emphasised.

Cabo Delgado province has been facing an armed insurgency promoted by rebels for five years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

The insurgency led to a military response a year ago with support from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), liberating districts near gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged in the south of the region and in neighbouring Nampula province.

In five years, the conflict has left one million people displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and around 4,000 dead, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.

Watch the TVM report.