Mozambique | Foreign troops: Renamo approves, Frelimo opposes – AIM report

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Mozambique | Foreign troops: Renamo approves, Frelimo opposes – AIM report

7:31 CAT | 22 Apr 2021

Photo: Frelimo Moçambique

Ossufo Momade, the leader of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, on Tuesday called on the government to bring foreign forces into the country to help fight islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Speaking to reporters on his arrival in the Cabo Delgado provincial capital, Pemba, he justified his call for foreign intervention with the claim that foreign contingents had helped the government in the war of destabilization waged in the 1980s by Renamo, which was then under the control of the South African apartheid regime.

Momade mixed real foreign troops, from Zimbabwe and Tanzania, with fictional ones, making the standard Renamo claim that Cuban and Soviet troops had been present in Mozambique in the 1980s.

Momade also delivered a gift of food and clothing for those displaced by the terrorist attacks. He was clearly following in the footsteps of Roque Silva, the General Secretary of the ruling Frelimo Party, who was also touring Cabo Delgado.

Silva on Sunday delivered 20 tonnes of food to displaced families in Palma. He became the first, and to date the only, Party leader to visit Palma town, following its recapture from the terrorists by the Mozambican defence and security forces.

Silva addressed a large rally in the ruined town at which, judging from the television footage, thousands of people were present.

After Momade’s call for foreign intervention, Silva categorically denied that Mozambique needs foreign troops to deal with terrorism.

He added that, if foreign troops were the key to beating terrorism, then Afghanistan would no longer be plagued by terrorists, since United States troops have been backing the Afghan government for the past 20 years.

Speaking at a press conference in Pemba, winding up his visit to Cabo Delgado, Silva declared that Mozambique has enough competent people in its armed forces to face terrorism. What it needed from its allies was not troops, but training and logistical support.

Like Momade, he cited the presence of Zimbabwean and Tanzanian forces in Mozambique during the war of destabilization – but he drew the opposite conclusion, pointing out that the Zimbabwean and Tanzanian contingents were unable to bring the war to an end.

Silva was echoing statements by President Filipe Nyusi, speaking on 7 April, where he insisted that any foreign intervention must take into account the need to protect the country’s sovereignty.

Nyusi had stressed “It is necessary to respect what should be done by the country itself and what should be done by its allies”.

Silva denied claims made in some quarters that the islamists had pulled out of Palma, rather than being pushed out. He said that the terrorists had intended to stay in the town, but the response they received from the Mozambican defence forces obliged them to withdraw.

He added that he was pleased and surprised that some of the townspeople are returning to Palma, and are trying to rebuild their lives.

Source: AIM