Mozambique: Threats to security no longer strictly military

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Mozambique: Threats to security no longer strictly military

6:37 CAT | 19 Jun 2025

Photo: Presidency

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Wednesday warned that threats to national sovereignty are no longer strictly military, but arise from other factors, notably organised and transnational crime.

The changing nature of threats to security, he said, meant that the Mozambican Security and Intelligence body (SISE) must be constantly updated.

Speaking as he swore into office Jose Pacheco as the new General Director of SISE, Chapo said organised crime “is infiltrating key institutions of the State and is operating within the State itself”.

Criminals, he warned, are infiltrated into the bodies that issue Mozambican identity documents such as identity cards and passports, as well as tax documents and driving licences. Forged documents “facilitate the actions of criminals”.

Other threats, said Chapo, include terrorism in parts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, the militias who call themselves “Naparamas”, “the financing of anti-democratic organisations, the manipulation of the population, the purchase of minds to create chaos and social disorder; cyber-attacks; and trafficking in drugs and in people”.

Such threats, he added, “demand different approaches – they cannot be fought against exclusively with the traditional techniques of intelligence and counter-intelligence. We cannot just be reactive. Just as in health care, in the world of crime, prevention is better than curing”.

Chapo described SISE as “one of the most important institutions of the Mozambican nation”. He told Pacheco that, under his watch, he wanted to see SISE “totally transformed, more dynamic, more functional, more agile and more assertive”, with the capacity “to anticipate the phenomena which could endanger our social harmony”.

Swearing Pacheco into office, he added, “should be seen as a turning point so that we can achieve better results in the defence of our country”.

Transfiguring SISE, Chapo continued, means “no to corruption, no to blackmail, no to gossip, no to intrigues, no to lies, as part of the principles and values of SISE activity”.

The transformation required also meant “no to nepotism, no to regionalism, and no to the sale of vacancies as criteria for the admission of new members”.

Pacheco, the President stressed, “has the task of doing away with all the evils which some members of SISE have unfortunately practiced, staining the nobility of the institution and the good reputation of many of its agents”.

Chapo said he was making these recommendations “because I am aware that these practices exist in the institution which you (Pacheco) will now head. This has to stop!”

This was the right moment, he said, “to end the sense of impunity and to dismantle the whole web of damaging practices which are prejudicing the performance of SISE. We want to rescue the prestige of SISE”.

Pacecopr.pres_

He did not go into detail, but Chapo was certainly well aware that the top leadership of SISE under one of his predecessors, Armando Guebuza, is currently in jail. The then Director-General of SISE, Gregorio Leao and his deputy Antonio Carlos do Rosario were found guilty of money-laundering and other financial crimes in connection with the scandal of the hidden debts.

The top SISE leadership of those days set up three fraudulent companies, Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management), which illicitly obtained loans of over two billion US dollars from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia. The loans were set up in a scheme between the SISE leadership and the Abu Dhabi-based group, Privinvest. Privinvest was found to have paid large bribes to Mozambican officials, including Leao and Rosario.

As from now, declared Chapo, “SISE must be formed only of disciplined, competent and courageous citizens, responsible patriots who are prepared to sacrifice their own lives in defence of this beloved country”.

Source: AIM