Mozambique: President highlights the importance of Tanzania in combating insurgency – Watch

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Mozambique: President highlights the importance of Tanzania in combating insurgency – Watch

7:24 CAT | 02 Jul 2024

Map: BBC

President Filipe Nyusi has highlighted the importance of cooperation with Tanzania, which he is visiting this week, in combating terrorism operations in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.

“We are also interested, in addition to deepening relations of cooperation, solidarity and friendship, to align a little more on the ‘modus operandi’, the way in which we are going to function because, at this moment with the departure of SAMIM, terrorists are trying to show that they exist,” local media quote Filipe Nyusi today as saying.

The head of state, who is visiting the neighbouring country until Thursday, reiterated that Tanzania would continue to support the fight against armed groups in Cabo Delgado “bilaterally”, despite the departure of the Southern African Development Community military mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) , of which it forms part.

“Next week, formally, or by the end of this week, SAMIM will leave and Tanzania will continue with us, bilaterally,” President Nyusi stressed.

In addition to Tanzania, South Africa, according to a statement by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, has extended until December 31 of this year the engagement of its 1,495 soldiers in the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado.

Rwanda, which also supports Mozambique in the fight against insurgency, is reinforcing its contingent of more than 2,500 soldiers in Cabo Delgado, the Mozambican president announced on May 18, hours after meeting his Rwandan counterpart in Kigali.

SAMIM has been in Cabo Delgado since mid-2021. In August, 2023, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) approved the extension of its mission for another 12 months, until July this year, providing for a progressive withdrawal plan.

The mission comprises troops from eight SADC countries “working in collaboration with the Armed Defence Forces of Mozambique and other troops deployed to Cabo Delgado”.

Tanzania borders two northern Mozambique provinces, namely Niassa and Cabo Delgado, the latter affected by attacks by armed groups.