Mozambican President is receptive to international aid, but this is yet to be defined, on the eve of an extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said the country “needs and wants support” to combat terrorism in the province of Cabo Delgado, warning of the risk of spreading extremist violence in the country and in southern Africa.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, in turn, clarified that the type of international support to be received is still to be decided, while a State Counselor criticizes the deployment of foreign military forces.
“We need and want support, without proclaiming our resignation in this process of defending the homeland and our freedom,” Nyusi declared at the opening of Frelimo’s Central Committee. Nyusi announced the holding next week of an extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to discuss the fight against armed groups operating in the north of the country.
The Mozambican president criticized “the stubbornness” of those who say that Mozambique has declined support in the fight against armed violence, reiterating that the country is aware that alone it cannot defeat terrorism, because it is a “global phenomenon.
Verónica Macamo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the government has not yet decided how the international support will be done. Military experts mandated by SADC have recommended the deployment of about three thousand soldiers in the region.
State Councilor Raul Domingos, on the other hand, is of the opinion that the country should rather boost cooperation in military training, as is the case of Portugal and the USA, and combat the socio-economic causes. “Military forces coming from Zimbabwe or South Africa to an unknown territory may have the same end that the Russians who were in Cabo Delgado had,” he warned.
