Africa-Press – Mozambique. Senior security officials from Mozambique and Rwanda met in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Monday to discuss expanding the defence and security cooperation between the two countries.
According to the spokesperson for the Rwanda Defence Force, Col Ronald Rwivanga, cited in Tuesday’s issue of the Rwandan daily “New Times”, the meeting discussed progress in restoring state authority in those parts of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado affected by islamist terrorism, six months after the deployment of Rwandan troops to assist the Mozambican defence forces.
“The other issue that we discussed is ways in which to start the training of the Mozambican forces so that we fulfil the last element that we discussed of security sector reform in order to give the requisite capacity to the forces in Mozambique to be able to stand on their own when we make the decision to withdraw in the future”, said Rwivanga.
The Chief of Staff of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), Gen Joaquim Mangrasse, who headed the Mozambican delegation, said “We came here to discuss further security arrangements to support the Mozambican forces in their journey to improve their capacity through training, and through fighting the insurgents wherever they may be”.
Mangrasse said that the terrorist groups have been “significantly weakened”, following the recent operations by the FADM and its allies from Rwanda and SAMIM (SADC Mission in Mozambique). Joint efforts “will continue to build on these results”, he promised.
The two delegations signed an agreement to expand their military cooperation. No details were given other than that the purpose of the agreement is “to improve the operations that are taking place in Cabo Delgado”.
The Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF), Gen Jean Bosco Kazura, pledged enhanced collaboration. He and Mangrasse signed the agreement.
“From the onset, we have achieved a lot from working together and today is another opportunity to see what we have achieved through working together, and also what we need to do together to achieve more”, said Kazura.
This agreement comes just immediately before an extraordinary heads of state summit of SADC, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Lilongwe, which is expected to extend the mandate of SAMIM.
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