SADC Secretariat prepares report after technical visit in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado

CABO DELGADO, Mozambique 

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat will prepare a report on the scale of the terrorist threat in Cabo Delgado and the support necessary after a visit to the province, an official source announced on Thursday.

The document will be submitted for consideration by the SADC Ministerial Committee and presented at the SADC Troika Summit – plus Mozambique – which will meet shortly to assess the type of support needed, a statement from the Mozambican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation reads.

“The support of SADC must be seen as a complementary action to the ongoing internal efforts, within the framework of solidarity, brotherhood and friendship on which the relations between the peoples and the countries of the Southern African region are based,” the ministry commented.

The note stresses that the help from the SADC and other international partners “will not replace the efforts of the government and the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces”.

Armed groups have terrorised Cabo Delgado since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State, in a wave of violence that has already caused more than 2,500 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and 714,000 people displaced, according to the Mozambican government.

The most recent attack, on March 24, was carried out against the town of Palma, causing dozens of deaths and injuries in numbers yet to be ascertained.

Mozambican authorities regained control of the town, but the attack led oil company Total to indefinitely abandon the main construction site of the gas project scheduled to start production in 2024 and on which many of Mozambique’s expectations for economic growth in the next decade are based.