Maputo (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, in his capacity as the current chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has called an extraordinary summit of the “Double Troika” of SADC for next week, in order to discuss terrorism in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.
Nyusi announced this during his speech on Saturday morning at the opening session of a meeting of the Central Committee of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, in the southern city of Matola.
“For next week, I have taken the initiative of calling another extraordinary summit of the Double Troika at which the central theme will be the security situation in Mozambique”, said Nyusi.
The calling of the summit, he added, contradicts those who argue that Mozambique does not need outside support to combat the terrorism which has plaguing districts in central and northern Cabo Delgado since October 2017.
A summit of the SADC defence and security troika that was to be held in Maputo in late April had to be postponed for lack of a quorum.
The troika chairperson, Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi, could not attend because he was in quarantine, following a contact with somebody who tested positive for the Covid-19 respiratory disease. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was also unavailable because he had to attend the Commission of Inquiry into accusations of “State Capture” and corruption under the regime of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.
Hence the only member of the troika who would have been available for the April summit was Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Without a quorum, the summit could not go ahead.
The summit should have discussed a report from a SADC technical commission on the nature of the terrorist threat in Cabo Delgado, and the type of support from SADC that Mozambique requires. According to South African press reports, the commission’s recommendations include that a regional rapid response force, almost 3,000 strong, be deployed to Cabo Delgado immediately.
Nyusi told the members of the Central Committee that terrorism is a global phenomenon. No country should consider itself immune, or should imagine that it can fight against terrorism on its own.
Terrorism, he added, continue to represent a major threat to the territorial integrity of the areas affected. The murderous activities of the terrorists should oblige all citizens to redouble patriotic efforts in support of the victims.
Turning to the attacks in the central provinces of Manica and Sofala waged by the dissident “Renamo Military Junta”, Nyusi repeated his appeal to all former Renamo guerrillas to abandon violence, and join the current demobilization of the Renamo militia and the reintegration of its members into Mozambican society, without any pre-conditions.
According to Renamo’s own figures, there are 5,221 former fighters who should be demobilised. Nyusi said that to date 2,307 of them (44 per cent) have been demobilised and disarmed. Ten Renamo military bases have been dismantled, of which nine have been completely closed.
Post published in: Africa News
