Africa-Press – Namibia. The Southern African Development Community Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government originally slated for 5 to 7 January, will meet from today to discuss the insurgency in Mozambique.
The meeting, which will review the progress of the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), will now take place in Lilongwe, Malawi, from 11 to 12 January. Almost a million people have been displaced and more than 3 000 civilians killed since 2017 in Mozambique.
The humanitarian situation in the northern parts of Mozambique worsened, with terrorists taking up a scorched earth military strategy – vandalising schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure.
Prior to the Extraordinary Summit, Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa and chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation will, on 11 January convene an Extraordinary SADC Organ Troika Summit, comprising Heads of State and Government from Organ Troika members (Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa).
In accordance with the SADC Treaty, the SADC Summit is responsible for the overall policy direction and control of functions of the community, ultimately making it the policy-making institution of SADC. A key issue on the table is “support for the effective operation of SAMIM objectives to bring peace and stability in Cabo Delgado”.
SAMIM was deployed to Mozambique mid-last year as the major component of a regional effort to dislodge Al Sunnah wa Jama’ah (ASWJ) insurgents, called “terrorists” in official SAMIM military communiques, from Cabo Delgado province.
South African international relations minister Naledi Pandor last month told a media briefing SAMIM’s mandate to continue offensive operations against terrorists and violent extremists was extended without providing a timeline.
Eight SADC countries – Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia – currently have troops and other military personnel detached to the mission. While not part of SADC, Rwanda has a thousand troops assisting FADM (Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique) in ongoing efforts to oust ASWJ from northern Mozambique.
Namibia has committed a cash amount of about N$5.8 million, instead of deploying troops, to help SADC fight an Islamic extremist insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique. In June last year, SADC approved a US$12 million (about N$177 million) budget for the deployment of the standby force mission for Mozambique.
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