Mozambique: New defence minister calls for ‘trust’ from citizens

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Mozambique: New defence minister calls for ‘trust’ from citizens

3:00 CAT | 23 Jan 2020

Photo: Lusa

The new Mozambican minister of defence, Jaime Neto, asked Mozambicans on Wednesday for “confidence” in the ability of the defence and security forces to combat armed attacks in central and northern Mozambique.

“For me, they must trust the defence and security forces, they are working at full speed to restore calm in these two regions,” said Jaime Neto, speaking on the sidelines of the visit he made today to the headquarters of the Mozambique Defence Forces (FADM) in Maputo, the first since he took office as minister of defence on Saturday.

“Mozambicans know about the work and operations that are being done in the Centre and North, but from what we have been told, we are satisfied,” said Jaime Neto, without going into details.

In the speech he read in the presence of officials and units representing the various branches of the FADM, Jaime Neto advocated urgent and sustainable solutions to the military instability in those two regions of the country.

“I also count on the insight and leadership capacity of the Armed Forces, to strengthen our mission to serve the homeland, defending it from all kinds of aggression and actions harmful to the state, which we built with much sacrifice,” he said.

Armed attacks whose authorship raises doubts, in northern Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado province, have already killed about 350 people in the last two years, around megaprojects of natural gas exploration.

In the centre of the country, dissident guerrillas of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) are contesting the peace agreement signed between the main opposition party and the government last August, since when they have killed 21 people in attacks against villages and vehicles on the main roads in the region.

Source: Lusa