HARARE, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe will send 304 military personnel to the SADC Standby Force Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) to train Mozambican forces as part of efforts to stabilize the southeast African nation which has been plagued by an Islamist insurgency.
Defense minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, on Thursday said the group will compose of 303
instructors and one specialist officer and be deployed to the coordinating
mechanism of the SADC Force Headquarters in the Mozambican capital Maputo.
“While other countries have to deploy combat troops, Zimbabwe pledged to assist in the training of Mozambique armed forces to enhance their capability to combat terrorism,” Muchinguri-Kashiri told journalists during a press briefing in Harare.
The deployment, she added, will take place once the Status of Force Agreement is signed.
Islamic
State-linked militants who have been terrorizing Mozambique’s gas-rich north
since 2017 escalated their attacks last year and culminated on March 24 with
coordinated raids on the port town of Palma in which dozens of people were
killed, some decapitated, and thousands of others displaced.Defense Minister,
Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri
The recent
violence offset major gas exploration projects in Cabo Delgado province and
raised fears it could spread to neighbouring countries, placing pressure on
President Filipe Nyusi to accept foreign troops.
The
16-member SADC agreed late last month to send troops to the
province. That military intervention was formalized a week after east
African nation Rwanda announced it was starting to deploy 1,000 troops to the
area.
Botswana
has also deployed troops while South Africa on Wednesday announced its
intention to send more than 1,400 troops to quell the insurgency.
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