Mozambique still to decide on type of external support to accept against terrorism – Verónica Macamo | Lusa

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Mozambique still to decide on type of external support to accept against terrorism – Verónica Macamo | Lusa

11:50 CAT | 24 May 2021

Image: Miramar

Member of Frelimo’s Central Committee and Mozambique’s Foreign Minister Verónica said on Saturday that the country was still to decide the type of external support against terrorism it was going to accept, given the recommendation by Southern Africa Development Community that the deployment of military personnel from the region would be necessary.

“We said we were expecting support; we did not say what type of support,” Verónica Macamo told reporters on the sidelines of the IV session of the Frelimo Central Committee meeting in Matola.

Macamo said that the Mozambican government would specify the type of assistance it wants from the international community in the fight against the armed groups active in Cabo Delgado in due course.

“At that time, we will decide exactly what support [will be accepted], according to the proposals we receive,” she stressed.

Macamo underlined that southern Africa, and the African continent in general, need to adopt a strong strategy to prevent the spread of terrorism.

“It is important that the whole world stands together in the fight against this great evil, but particularly in Southern Africa, because it has this problem,” she said.

Anyone in favour of violent extremism, she continued, needed to know that there is no place for them in Southern Africa or Africa, and that they would face a robust response.

The Mozambican minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation said she believed that the country would “see better days” after this phase of violence involving armed groups in the north of the country was brought to a close.

Filipe Nyusi on Saturday announced the holding of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit this week to debate terrorist violence in Cabo Delgado, emphasizing the need for international support in the fight against insurgency.

Also read: Mozambique: Nyusi calls SADC security summit

Nyusi was speaking at the opening of the IV session of the Central Committee of the ruling party, of which he is also president.

Military experts mandated by SADC recommended the deployment of about 3,000 military personnel from the region to support Mozambique in fighting the insurgency in the northern region, warning of the risk of the spread of violence in the territory and in the sub-region.

Armed groups have terrorised Cabo Delgado since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State, in a wave of violence that has already caused more than 2,500 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and displaced 714,000 people, according to the Mozambican government.

The most recent attack, on March 24, was carried out against the town of Palma, causing dozens of deaths and injuries in numbers yet to be ascertained.

Mozambican authorities regained control of the town, but the attack led oil company Total to indefinitely abandon the main construction site of the gas project scheduled to start production in 2024, on which many of Mozambique’s expectations for economic growth in the next decade are based.