Mozambique: Sovereignty is under ‘transnational terrorist attack’ – Parliament

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Mozambique: Sovereignty is under ‘transnational terrorist attack’ – Parliament

7:43 CAT | 12 Nov 2020

FILE- Metuge camp for internally displaced persons, near Pemba, Cabo Delgado. [File photo: Lusa]

Members of the Mozambican Parliament on Thursday said that the sovereignty of the country is under “transnational terrorism attack” in the north, with “dramatic consequences for human rights” and called for an “urgent response to the humanitarian situation”.

Legislators were speaking during the debate on the report made by a parliamentary committee on Human Rights in Conflict Zones in the Provinces of Cabo Delgado, Manica and Sofala.

Legislator and television presenter Gabriel Júnior, from the ruling party Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo), said that the armed groups that are leading attacks in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique, are part of an international terrorist coalition and want to make the social and economic development of the country impossible.

Francisco Mucanheia, another Frelimo legislator, called for the unity of all Mozambicans in the face of what he called “large-scale terrorist action”.

“The right of the Mozambican people to sovereignty and territorial integrity is being confronted by a common enemy that wants to prevent Mozambicans from taking advantage of their natural resources,” said Francisco Mucanheia.

The deputy and spokesman for the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), third party and with the smallest number of legislators in parliament, Fernando Bismarque, warned of the risk of the spread of violence by armed groups operating in Cabo Delgado, describing the human rights situation in the region as “dramatic”.

“This situation must not be minimised, otherwise it will spread to the neighbouring provinces and the whole country, we must put an end to the vagueness around what is happening in Cabo Delgado and discuss the problem seriously”, Bismarque said.

“There is an urgent need to strengthen the financial capacity of the districts that are hosting the people displaced by the fighting because all humanitarian assistance is lacking”, Elias Impuire, another MDM member of parliament said.

Elias Impuire was a member of the mission of the parliamentary Commission for Constitutional Affairs, Human Rights and Legality, which drafted the report discussed today.

The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, left the session at the beginning.

The resolution repudiates armed violence in the north and centre of the country and asks the government to strengthen the logistical and material capacity of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS).

The resolution comes at a time when the conflict in Cabo Delgado has been the subject of international attention due to reports of massacres by rebels, killing hundreds of people in the last week, some of them allegedly beheaded.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday said he was “shocked” by ” the reports of massacres by non-State armed groups in several villages, including reported mass-beheadings, and kidnapping of women and children”.

The UN Secretary-General also urged Mozambique’s authorities “to conduct an investigation into these incidents, and to hold those responsible to account,” while calling “on all parties to the conflict to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.”

The armed violence is causing a humanitarian crisis with some 2,000 deaths and 435,000 people displaced to neighbouring provinces without housing or sufficient food – mainly concentrated in the provincial capital, Pemba.

In the central region, the Military Junta, an armed dissidence of Renamo, is suspected of killing 30 people in attacks on buses, villages and FDS elements.

The movement challenges the elected leader of Renamo at the 2019 congress, Ossufo Momade, and emerged in June 2019.

Source: Lusa