Mozambique: Portugal calls for ‘concrete responses’ in cooperation against armed groups in Cabo Delgado – Watch

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Portugal calls for ‘concrete responses’ in cooperation against armed groups in Cabo Delgado – Watch

8:46 CAT | 19 Feb 2021

Screen grab: TVM

The Portuguese ambassador to Mozambique, Maria Amélia Paiva, on Friday said that she expected concrete answers about cooperation against armed groups in the northern province of Cabo Delgado soon.

The diplomat was speaking after a meeting with the speaker of the Mozambican parliament, Esperança Bias, at the end of her mission in the country.

At present, she said, technical issues were being dealt with regarding future cooperation between Portugal, the European Union (EU) and Mozambique to combat the armed groups carrying out attacks in Cabo Delgado.

“At this moment, after a technical exploratory mission [to Mozambique], the technical work is underway,” she said.

Maria Amélia Paiva recalled that Portugal’s defence minister, João Gomes Cravinho, and Portugal’s foreign minister, Augusto Santos Silva, had recently visited Mozambique to prepare joint actions.

João Gomes Cravinho, on Wednesday estimated that Portugal would send some 60 soldiers to Mozambique in April to train Mozambican special forces to combat terrorism, but noted that the process was still being dealt with by the Mozambican authorities.

The armed violence in Mozambique’s northernmost province, which is home to Africa’s biggest private multinational investment in natural gas exploration, is causing a humanitarian crisis with over 2,000 deaths and 560,000 people displaced, without housing or food, mainly concentrated in the provincial capital, Pemba.

Some of the incursions have been claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State since 2019.

Watch the TVM report below.