Santos Silva says EU mission to Mozambique will take place “later this month”

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Santos Silva says EU mission to Mozambique will take place “later this month”

4:00 CAT | 07 Jan 2021

Picture: Lusa

The Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, said today that the preparatory European Union (EU) support mission to Mozambique, which he will lead, will take place “later this month”.

“We are preparing the mission to Mozambique at the technical level, between the two diplomatic missions, the diplomacy of the European Union and the diplomacy of Mozambique, and we anticipate that this political mission could happen this month,” Santos Silva said at a joint press conference with his Cypriot counterpart, Nikos Christodoulides, after a working meeting in Lisbon.

The Portuguese minister is tasked with leading the EU mission after the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in December asked Santos Silva to travel to Mozambique as his envoy to discuss the situation in Cabo Delgado, the stage of armed violence attributed to extremist Islamic groups, with the national authorities.

Augusto Santos Silva said he was “honoured” by his appointment to lead the mission on behalf of Josep Borrell, “so that the European Union’s response to support Mozambique is as swift and effective as possible”.

The choice of Santos Silva comes during Portugal’s presidency of the Council of the EU, from January 1 to June 30, 2021.

Armed violence in Cabo Delgado, where Africa’s largest private multinational investment (in natural gas extraction) is underway, is causing a humanitarian crisis with more than 2,000 deaths and 560,000 internally displaced.

Some of the raids have, since 2019, been claimed since 2019 by the jihadist Islamic State group.

Source: Lusa