Mozambique: Timor-Leste president open to providing aid in fight against rebels

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Mozambique: Timor-Leste president open to providing aid in fight against rebels

5:40 CAT | 05 Jul 2024

Photo: Presidente Filipe Nyusi/Facebook

The president of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, on Friday expressed solidarity with Mozambique in the face of armed attacks by rebel groups in Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, declaring his openness to providing support to the African country in dealing with the problem.

“We fully support Mozambique in managing this threat to stability that arises from external sources,” José Ramos-Horta told a press conference after meeting President Nyusi in Maputo as part of his working visit to Mozambique, which ends on Sunday.

José Ramos-Horta expressed openness to supporting the country in the face of terrorism in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, highlighting the historical ties that exist between the two states.

“You can count on us,” he stressed, taking the opportunity to invite the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, to visit Timor-Leste to “share his experience” in efforts to pacify the country.

“Mozambique is a reconciliation success story, for those who knew the country previously. Even in the armed struggle [against the Portuguese colonial regime], Portuguese soldiers [captured during the struggle] were returned safe and sound and, on the other side, this did not happen,” he added.

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Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado has faced an armed rebellion with attacks claimed by movements associated with the extremist Islamic State group.

The last major attack took place on May 10 and 11, on the district headquarters of Macomia, with around a hundred insurgents looting the town, causing several deaths and heavy fighting with the Mozambique Defence and Security Forces.

The population of other districts of the province has reported the movement of these groups of insurgents, who cause panic as they pass, in the forests, but without any record of clashes, which happens at a time when peasants are trying to harvest produce from their cultivation plots.

The President of Mozambique stated on June 16 that the action of the various defence forces made it possible to eliminate “practically all” the bases of terrorist groups operating in Cabo Delgado, leaving them now limited to “walking around in the bush”.

Source: Lusa