Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi declared on Sunday that there is no reason to fear the presence of foreign troops in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
He was addressing the nation about the situation in Cabo Delgado where islamist terrorists have been waging a war against the Mozambican state since October 2017. Terrorist actions, Nyusi said, have resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 citizens and the displacement of over 800,000 people from their homes.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is mobilising a force of about 3,000 troops to assist the anti-terrorist efforts of the Mozambican defence and security forces, and about 1,000 soldiers and police from Rwanda have already arrived in Cabo Delgado.
Nyusi stressed that the task of the foreign troops is to assist the Mozambican forces, and not to replace them in restoring order and security to Cabo Delgado.
He said that activation of the SADC Standby Force had been done under the regional organisation’s Mutual Security Pact, in force since 2000. One article in that pact states that an armed attack against one SADC member state is regarded as a threat to regional peace and security, and should meet with an immediate collective response from all SADC members.
As for the support from Rwanda, Nyusi said this was based on bilateral agreements dating from the 1990s, and strengthened in 2018. These rested on the doctrine of responsibility for protecting civilians, and on Rwanda’s military experience.
The Rwandans, he added, had informed the Mozambican authorities that they were available to come to Mozambique immediately.
The request for Rwandan support was known both to SADC and to the African Union who had given the green light to Rwandan involvement.
“We should not be afraid of military cooperation with other countries”, said Nyusi, pointing out that Mozambique had a long history of such cooperation. Thus, in the 1970s, a Mozambican contingent marched with the Tanzanian armed forces to Kampala to overthrow Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, and Mozambicans had fought alongside Zimbabwean freedom fighters in the war for Zimbabwean liberation.
The behaviour of the foreign forces in Cabo Delgado, he explained, will be guided by a previously approved structure of command “which guarantees that there will be no clashes and no lack of coordination between our forces and the foreign units”.
It was absolutely clear, he continued that Mozambicans will be in the vanguard and the strategic direction of the military operations, because it is Mozambicans who have the best knowledge of the terrain and the context, and are those most interested in the restoration of stability in their own country.
He stressed that no country had asked for any form of reward or compensation for supporting operations to save the lives of Mozambicans, just as Mozambique has asked for nothing in exchange for its solidarity in struggles of the past.
Far from fearing the foreign troops “we should praise those who are joining us to eradicate terrorism”, Nyusi declared. “Together, and in a coordinated way, all these forces will help restore tranquillity in Cabo Delgado”.
Rather than fearing foreign assistance, “what we should really fear is facing the terrorists on our own”, the President said. “No country in the world is able to be self-sufficient in the struggle against terrorism”.
