Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s Integrated Development Agency for the North (ADIN), a government entity, admitted on Thursday that a “military solution” is insufficient to restore peace in Cabo Delgado province, advocating social and economic development actions in the region.
“Today, as many people know and say very well, the solution in Cabo Delgado is not the military solution,” coordinator of Communication and Transversal Affairs at ADIN, João Machatine, said.
Machatine was speaking on the sidelines of the conference to launch the 2021 annual report of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a Mozambican non-governmental organisation, entitled “Conflict Resolution in Cabo Delgado”.
“The Government created the agency (ADIN) to be able to constitute its army [of economic and social development] as different from the army of weapons,” Machatine underlined.
Machatine said that the reconstruction strategy in the districts affected by the action of armed groups in the province was already underway.
“We have been working, side by side, and in close articulation with the major cooperation partners and development support organisations” in terms of infrastructure, so that the population feels safe with a view to a “spontaneous and gradual” return, he explained.
The population is returning to the villages of the districts, avoiding, for the time being, resettling in more remote villages and smaller administrative posts, because “the situation still inspires a little bit of caution” in terms of security, he pointed out.
Director of the CDD Adriano Nuvunga reiterated on the occasion that the government should invest in an “inclusive dialogue” with the communities of Cabo Delgado, aiming at the implementation of a strategy focused on the economic and social development of the region.
“The military response alone is not enough to respond to the situation,” Nuvunga emphasised.
Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.
There are 784,000 internally displaced persons due to the conflict, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), and about 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registry project.
Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops, with the support of Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has allowed the recovery of areas where there was previously a rebel presence.
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