Africa-Press – Mozambique. Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, has expressed the country’s willingness to send more equipment to help the armed forces of Mozambique in the fight against terrorism.
“Of course, there is that availability. Mozambique knows what our availability is, it is necessary to know if our availability engages with the needs that Mozambique has,” António Costa told reporters in Maputo.
The prime minister on Friday ended a two-day official visit to Mozambique, where he took part in the 5th Luso-Moçambican Summit.
António Costa today visited the Portuguese troops at the Marine Corps School and the European Union training mission to train Mozambican troops to combat terrorism at the Independent Marine Company in Catembe (on the southern bank of Maputo).
“There is some of the equipment that the EU itself is supplying, it is already in Mozambique, and I believe it will be delivered during the visit of the high representative, Josep Borrell, on 9 September,” he said.
Pointing out that “there is another type of equipment that Mozambique has been in need of,” the Portuguese prime minister said it was necessary to “work, either within the framework of the European Union or perhaps among a group of European Union countries, to complete this support so that this entire operation, in addition to training, then has the necessary tools for action.
Asked whether the equipment that Portugal could send to Mozambique includes arms, the prime minister admitted that possibility.
However, an official source in his office indicated that it was non-lethal military equipment.
On Thursday, the President of the Republic of Mozambique called for “modern equipment,” arguing that “material support would be fundamental to fighting the enemy”.
At the Independent Marine Company, Portugal’s prime minister and defence minister, Helena Carreiras, watched a small demonstration of the training that is given to Mozambican military personnel.
During his briefing to the Portuguese government delegation, the commander of the European Union military training mission in Mozambique, Brigadier General Lemos Pires, said that the mission has 119 members from 12 countries.
Lemos Pires said that the material that will be donated by the European Union, worth 89 million euros, was “exactly what Mozambique wants.
The training of the 11 units of the Mozambican Rapid Reaction Forces (RRF) – marines and commandos – was approved during the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union. It started at the end of last year and is expected to last two years, with 140 military trainees over that period.
The mission responds to the Mozambican government’s request for help in preparing 1,100 Mozambican officers, sergeants and soldiers – six army special operations companies and five navy special operations companies – to fight in particular in Cabo Delgado.
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