Mozambique: Triumph over terrorists will take some time – AIM report

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Mozambique: Triumph over terrorists will take some time – AIM report

6:10 CAT | 21 Mar 2022

Scren grab: TVM

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has warned that success in the fight against the ISIS terrorists, who have been staging attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado since October 2017, will take some time.

Addressing on Thursday in Maputo a state banquet offered to his Portuguese counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is on a four day visit to Mozambique, Nyusi said however that the gains on the ground by the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS) aided by the Southern Africa Development Community Military Mission (SAMIM) and the Rwandan Army are building confidence in the return of peace.

“We are fully aware that a complete victory over the terrorists is yet to be achieved,” Nyusi said, adding that in the early hours of Thursday FDS troops had fearlessly overpowered terrorists in Matemo Island, in Ibo district, who had tried to mingle within the communities.

After they entered the island, the terrorists torched some houses belonging to Matemo residents, but FDS prompt reaction has led to the killing of dozens of the attackers and the arrest of others, he claimed. (The local police commander, however, put the death toll among the terrorists at ten).

The terrorists, Nyusi stated, remain active in Mozambique mainly because very little is known about their faces, their motivations, funding sources and extremist connections.

Thus, Nyusi renewed his appeal to the international community to maintain the support to the FDS, SAMIM and the Rwandan troops, for a successful eradication of the terrorists.

“For the achievement of this goal, we have programmatic instruments which are also intended to ensure humanitarian, social and economic actions, but also to ensure the rehabilitation of local administrative infrastructures, and the return of the communities to their origins,” Nyusi declared.

He praised the paramount role played by the Portuguese Government in the European Union’s rotating presidency. “Your commitment has fast-tracked the decision by the EU Council, in July 2021, to create a capacity building military mission to Mozambique”, said Nyusi.

Source: AIM