Nyusi puts direct cost of fighting terrorism at over 300 million dollars a year – AIM report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Nyusi puts direct cost of fighting terrorism at over 300 million dollars a year – AIM report

7:00 CAT | 28 Mar 2022

FILE PHOTO - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has put the cost of military and security operations to eliminate the terrorist threat in the northern province of Cabo Delgado at 275 million euros (about 303 million US dollars) a year.

He was speaking in a declaration, recorded in Aqaba, in Jordan, and then distributed by the Mozambican President’s office. Nyusi was attending the latest meeting in the Aqaba Process, an initiative launched in 2015 by King Abdullah of Jordan to debate international cooperation in the military and security areas, as part of the global approach to fighting terrorism and radicalization.

“We are asking our friends to help us”, said Nyusi, “because the operations under way are very expensive, costing about 275 million euros a year. So we need support from all those who can provide it”.

Nyusi said a further 320 million dollars a year are needed to build up Mozambique’s own defence capacity, including training and equipping Mozambican forces so that they can “keep the peace” once foreign forces have left.

Some participants attended the Aqaba meeting in person and others by video link, representing African, Asian and European countries, international companies and academic institutions.

Thursday’s session dealt with security in east Africa, including Mozambique. Parallel to the session, Nyusi held meetings with the Presidents of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Felix Tshishekedi. The Rwandan government has sent a force of about 2,000 troops and police to support the Mozambican defence and security forces in their fight against ISIS terrorists, while the DRC is fighting a similar terrorist threat.

Nyusi declared that those participants who want to support Mozambique “should interact directly with the government or with visible organizations, who operate transparently and effectively”, and not with shadowy middlemen.

“We’ve learnt there are many Mozambicans negotiating support abroad for their organizations, and later we don’t know what they’re doing”, he said.

Source: AIM