Africa-Press – Mozambique. The standing commission of the Mozambican parliament announced on Tuesday that the three parliamentary benches “agree” with the presence of foreign troops to combat armed groups in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
“The first conclusion is that all the parliamentary benches support the presence of foreign troops in Mozambique to address the situation in Cabo Delgado province,” said deputy Alberto Matucutuco, spokesman for the parliament’s standing commission.
Matucutuco, who is an MP for the ruling Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo), was speaking at a press conference at the end of a session of the standing commission, which was making its first statement since the arrival over three weeks ago of a contingent of Rwandan troops who are fighting insurgents in Cabo Delgado.
The spokesman for the standing commssion said that the parliament would convene the government to provide information around foreign contingents in the country at the request of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party.
“All the parliamentary benches are unanimous in creating a space in the next session of parliament, which begins in October, for the government to share the situation in Cabo Delgado,” said Matucutuco.
The representatives of the three parliamentary parties, he said, encouraged the activities of the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS) in the fight against the armed groups in the north of the country.
Renamo and the third party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), had criticised the government for authorising the presence of foreign military personnel in the country without informing parliament.
Civil society organisations also considered sending foreign contingents to Mozambique without informing parliament to be a disrespect of the parliament.
Since the beginning of July, the Mozambican FDS has supported 1,000 Rwandan soldiers and police officers to fight the armed groups under a bilateral agreement between the Mozambican government and the Kigali authorities.
As well as Rwanda, Mozambique will have support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in a mandate for a joint standby force approved on 23 June at an extraordinary summit of the organisation in Maputo, which discussed armed violence in that province, with military personnel from some member countries already on the ground.
The number of troops that the organisation will send to Mozambique is not publicly known, but SADC experts who were in Cabo Delgado said in April that the mission would be made up of around 3,000 soldiers.
Armed groups have been terrorising Cabo Delgado province since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the radical group Islamic State.
The attacks have so far claimed more than 3,100 lives, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and are at the root of more than 817,000 displaced people, according to Mozambican authorities.
