Mozambique: SADC summit in Maputo to discuss violence in Cabo Delgado next week

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Mozambique: SADC summit in Maputo to discuss violence in Cabo Delgado next week

3:00 CAT | 12 Jan 2021

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique will host, between 17 and 20 of this month, an extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an event whose main objective is to discuss the armed violence in Cabo Delgado, President Filipe Nyusi has announced.

“This summit will discuss, among other issues, the security situation in the SADC and Mozambique,” Mozambican head of state Filipe Nyusi said, quoted today by the daily ‘Noticias’.

According to Filipe Nyusi, who was speaking during a press conference in Pemba on Monday, SADC experts will be meeting in the Mozambican capital on Saturday (January 16) to discuss details of the summit.

The decision to hold an extraordinary summit was announced on December 14, after a high-level SADC consultation meeting in Maputo attended by the Mozambican head of state, presidents Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Mokgweetsi Masisi, from Botswana, and Emmerson Mnangagwa, from Zimbabwe, as well as Vice-President of Tanzania, Samia Sulihu.

Armed violence in Cabo Delgado, where Africa’s largest private multinational investment is developing (for the extraction of natural gas) started three years ago and is causing a humanitarian crisis with more than 2,000 deaths and 560,000 people displaced, without adequate housing or food, mainly to the provincial capital, Pemba.

Some of the raids have been claimed by the Islamic State ‘jihadist’ group since 2019.

Also read: SADC to hold summit on Mozambican security in January – AIM

President Nyusi discussed security in the SADC with his Tanzanian counterpart, John Magufuli, during a one-day visit to that country.

Nyusi clarified that security does not refer only to the situation in Cabo Delgado, but throughout the southern region, in order to allow countries to focus on local development.

“This was an unavoidable issue because we want to develop our countries; we want energy for everyone, water, good housing, roads, food and other better things. All of this will only be possible with the nations safe,” Filipe Nyusi explained, stressing that, whenever thinking about development, it was necessary to take into account the security situation.

Speaking at a press conference in the city of Pemba, Cabo Delgado, on his return from his one-day visit to Tanzania, the head of state indicated that his visit was aimed at strengthening the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries.

Among the issues addressed, socioeconomic cooperation and commercial exchanges stood out, with infrastructure such as the Negomano bridge also analysed, as being essential to commercial relations in the region.

The security situation in the northern (Cabo Delgado) and central operational theatres (Manica and Sofala), under armed attack since 2017 and 2019 respectively, was also discussed.

The head of state said that the meeting with President John Magufuli also saw an exchange of information on preparations for the extraordinary SADC summit to be held in Maputo from 17 to 20 January.

“This summit will discuss, among other issues, the security situation in the SADC, and in Mozambique, in particular. To this end, experts from the organization will meet in Maputo on Saturday to assess how the summit is to take place,” President Nyusi announced.

In another context, the president called on Mozambicans to support young people in the ranks of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) operating in Cabo Delgado, Manica and Sofala, and to congratulate them on their commitment to the search for peace and security in the country.

He said he had learned that many young people have come to regret joining the groups carrying out terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado, who he encouraged approach the FDS and hand themselves in.

The same situation, he said, is happening in the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta, whose members are divided, with the majority expressing a desire to embrace the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process.

“These, we will receive. It is not in our character to kill other Mozambicans,” Filipe Nyusi said. “Abandon this violent stance and join the national development process,” he urged.

Source: Lusa / Noticias