Mozambique: MDM joins Renamo in calling for dialogue with Cabo Delgado rebels
File photo: DW
Southern African countries are gathering to debate the security crisis in Mozambique, but while analysts in Maputo expect the countries neighbours to support Mozambique against the terrorists, they are, overall, sceptical of the SADC summit.
The extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Maputo this Thursday will discuss joint measures to combat terrorism in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. The so-called ‘SADC Double Troika’ is meeting just two weeks after insurgents attacked Palma, a few kilometres from the Total liquid gas project on the Afungi peninsula.
The meeting in Maputo brings together the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, and his Tanzanian counterpart, Samia Suluhu Hassan, in addition to the heads of state of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana.
The meeting was called after insurgents linked to the Islamic State attacked the strategic village of Palma, just a few kilometres from the multimillion-dollar gas project on the Afungi peninsula, in the province of Cabo Delgado.
In announcing the meeting, the chairman of the SADC Policy, Defence and Security organ, President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, called the attacks in Mozambique “an affront” not only to peace in the country, but also to stability “in the region and the international community as a whole”.
Mozambican scholar Hélio Guiliche believes that the SADC can do little but offer advice. “The SADC has remained silent, the African Union has remained silent. If we look at it, the great international appeals, the great notes of condemnation and disapproval did not come from SADC or the African Union; they came from the European Parliament and other Western powers,” he observes.
Mozambican pride?
Academic and analyst Calton Cadeado notes, however, that Maputo has not yet made an official request for support and, without that request, there will not be much that regional partners can do.
“It seems to me that it will be a silence on the part of the SADC members, waiting to hear what Mozambique’s position is, and any request from Mozambique on the types of support that it considers important to face terrorism in Cabo Delgado,” Cadeado predicts.
Since 2018, for reasons of sovereignty, Mozambique has not accepted military intervention by SADC countries, opting to hire private security companies or to train its forces to use air assets and military equipment supplied by foreign military forces.
“We have to have a SADC that is much more interventional in terms of what, for example, its statutes are,” says analyst Hélio Guiliche, highlighting some SADC weakness in this area.
What to expect from Tanzania?
For Guiliche, the bloc’s statutes for the southern African region are very clear and well designed, but there is a difference between SADC directives and their action plans. “Talking about the SADC, the African Union and Africa as a whole, Africa needs this union in order to be able to sustain itself, in order to be able to protect itself, without necessarily seeking or going to request foreign support,” he says.
On the other hand, the expectation is that the SADC meeting will deliver more support to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Cabo Delgado. The attacks have already displaced more than 700,000 people. More recently, Tanzania has been heavily criticized for deporting Mozambican refugees who crossed the border in search of safety after the assault on Palma.
“We have to assume that Tanzania is concerned about the possibility of people entering its territory on the pretext of fleeing terrorism, but who are, in fact, terrorists who will then jeopardize the security of the country itself. This is not an insignificant matter,” he explains.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) noted this week that “no one should be prevented from entering a country when they are applying for asylum”, and the SADC said in a statement that it is “deeply concerned” about the victims of the armed attacks in Cabo Delgado.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.