Mozambique: Military officers must go to the front – AIM

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Mozambique: Military officers must go to the front – AIM

7:14 CAT | 14 Apr 2025

Photo: Ministério da Defesa Nacional - Moçambique

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Friday demanded that military officers must go to the front, rather than staying at home.

Speaking at the Maputo ceremony where he swore into office Gen Julio Jane as the new Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (FADM), Chapo attacked those (unnamed) officers with higher education, whose only experience of the trenches is in training sessions.

He demanded that there should be promotion through the ranks. He did not want to see the same people always leading the troops into battle. “This must change immediately”, Chapo declared.

Other officers, he added, were physically unfit for active service, and they shouLd be retired. Chapo admitted that many soldiers, “whose position is undefined, are at home receiving money from the State, but without doing any work”.

“It is urgent that we solve this situation this year”, he said. He was leaving these instructions “because we dream of a country at peace, a stable country, free of terrorism. So this is not a simple swearing-in ceremony – it should be a turning point for us to achieve better results in the defence and stability of our motherland”.

Chapo urged Jane to combat terrorism, subversion, illegal immigration, drug and people trafficking, and violent demonstrations, among other phenomena that seek to destabilise the constitutional order of the country.

These, Chapo said, were phenomena that had caused mourning in Mozambican families, had destroyed public and private infrastructures, lacerating the country’s economy.

The FADM, he said, “are called upon to anticipate and respond to any threat to our national independence, our sovereignty and peace, so that our people are not taken by surprise by attacks by the enemies of our development, as happened in 2017, when the first terrorist attack occurred in Mocimboa da Praia”.

Chapo urged the FADM to remain in a state of combat readiness, constantly building up their capacity, and improving their performance.

After the ceremony, Jane told reporters that Chapo’s speech will be studied and its recommendations implemented. “We shall prioritise the fight against terrorism and questions of the organisation and functioning of this institution”, he said.

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Source: AIM