Africa-Press – Mozambique. Military and security operations to eliminate the terrorist threat in Cabo Delgado are budgeted at €275 million per year, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced this Thursday after an international meeting at which he asked for funding support.
“We asked our friends to help us, because the operations now underway [in Cabo Delgado] are very, very expensive – they cost approximately €275 million a year,” the president said.
“So we need support from all those who can, to the extent they can,” he added.
In addition to the ongoing fight, there are other investments needed, he stressed.
In another pillar of the strategy, up to “US$320 million (€290 million) are needed to create real defence capacity in Mozambique”, with training and re-equipment of troops, so that the country is able “to keep the peace” when foreign forces leave.
Filipe Nyusi was speaking in a statement recorded in Aqaba, Jordan, and distributed by the Mozambican presidency.
The head of state took part in another round of the Aqaba Process meetings, an initiative launched in 2015 by King Abdullah of Jordan to discuss international cooperation in the military and security areas.
The sessions were attended (in person and via teleconference) by military and security representatives from the United States, European, Asian and African countries, as well as representatives from international companies and academic institutions.
President Nyusi was received on Wednesday by King Abdullah, who also held separate meetings with the presidents of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Félix Tshisekedi.
Thursday’s Aqaba Process meetings focused on security issues in East Africa.
With regard to Mozambique, Nyusi gave a positive assessment of his search for support.
“It became clear” for participants who want to support Mozambique, that they must “interact directly with the government or with visible organisations” that act with “transparency and effectively”, he said.
“We have been discovering that there are many Mozambicans who are negotiating support for their organisations abroad, and then we don’t know what it is,” President Nyusi observed.
Some of this support, directed through “intermediaries”, “does not reach” the combat front, while some only serve for “instigation” and other purposes, Nyusi said, without elaborating further.
Mozambique-Jordan cooperation: Fighting terrorism high on list of priorities – Noticias
Cabo Delgado province, in the north of Mozambique, is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized for four years by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.
The conflict has already cost more than 3,100 lives, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and displaced more than 817,000 civilians, according to the Mozambican authorities.
Since July 2021, offensives by government troops, with the support of Rwanda, later joined by Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces, has restored security, recovering several areas where there was a presence of rebels, but the conflict continues with sporadic attacks. in some districts used as a passage or temporary refuge {by the fleeing insurgents].
