President Chapo and King Mswati III strengthen strategic partnership between Mozambique and Eswatini
“We are being attacked and we have to defend ourselves” – Luís Bernardo Honwana
11:31 CAT | 03 May 2021
File photo: O País
Mozambican writer Luís Bernardo Honwana argues that Mozambique must accept external support to combat the terrorist attacks that have plagued the province of Cabo Delgado since October 2017, the last of which took place on 24 March in the district of Palma.
“We are being attacked and we have to defend ourselves; we have to expel the attackers and remake our life,” the writer says. This must be a joint action with external forces, as has happened with other countries which accepted help overcoming this type of attack.
“Why is it different in Mozambique?” Honwana asks. The country should be the first to defend itself, but “in no way should we refuse the support of all those who think and know that this type of attacks must be answered, and by all those who feel outraged by this happening, and I think that the whole international community is [united] in that feeling”.
The author of “We Killed Mangy-Dog and Other Mozambique Stories” thinks that the country does not have the capacity, the technology or the other equipment needed to fight terrorism alone.
Our soldiers are not lacking in courage, the writer argues; our people are not lacking in a spirit of sacrifice, and there is no lack of desire to defend their country, but even so, one cannot deny “what is fundamental”.
“Let us stop seeing this daily exhibition of beheaded people, rape and the most horrible things imaginable,” he stresses, demanding urgency in the fight against terrorism, something that once again postpones the process of our development, peace and progress.
By Julieta Zucula
Source: O País
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