MAPUTO, Mozambique
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday declared that Rwanda had neither asked for nor received anything in return for sending a contingent of troops to help the Mozambican defence and security forces fight against islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Nyusi (above) was giving his annual State of the Nation Address to the Mozambican parliament,
the Assembly of the Republic, and strongly defended the presence of foreign
troops in the fight against terrorism. He stressed that there is a bilateral
defence agreement between Mozambique and Rwanda, and that troops from several
member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had entered
Mozambique under SADC protocols that Mozambique has ratified.
Nyusi
added that Mozambique remains in overall control of the anti-terrorist
operations, with Mozambican officers providing “strategic guidance” for all the
forces involved.
“Terrorism
is like a virus”, he said, “you can’t fight against it within national borders.
We are fighting for a southern Africa free of terrorism”,
In
this fight, he declared, “nobody has called for compensation from Mozambique”.
In
the recent offensive by the Mozambican forces and their allies, said Nyusi, most
of the terrorist bases in Cabo Delgado “have been dismantled”. In this
offensive, about 200 terrorists have been killed, including several of their
leaders and ideologues, whom the president named. Among them was a certain
Rajid Faquir, who had been the number three in the terrorist command structure.
The
Mozambican authorities, Nyusi continued, were now strengthening their hold over
areas once occupied by the jihadists in the Cabo Delgado districts of Mocimboa
da Praia, Palma, Muidumbe and Macomia.
Nyusi
believed that the Cabo Delgado insurgency was “pure banditry” and that recruits
to the terrorist cause were driven by nothing more complicated than greed. He
urged them to rethink, and return to their families. “It’s never too late”, he
said.
Some
of the terrorists had fled from Cabo Delgado into the neighbouring province of
Niassa, and some had even crossed the border into Tanzania, the President
added.
Nyusi urged the population of Niassa to remain calm because “the defence and security forces are doing everything to contain the insurgency”,
Nyusi
said the terrorist raids have claimed about 2,000 lives, and have displaced
more than 800,000 people from their homes. But when those in the central
provinces of Manica and Sofala who fled from attacks by the self-styled Renamo
Military Junta are included, the total number displaced rises to 948,000.
But
the Military Junta insurgency appears to be at an end following the death of
its leader, Mariano Nhongo in October. Supporters of the Junta have given up
their fight, and have been applying for the demobilization offered by the
government to all former members of the Renamo militia, under what is known as
DDR – demobilization, disarmament and reintegration.
Nyusi
said that, under the DDR, to date 16 Renamo bases have been dismantled and 11
of these have been entirely closed. 3,277 former Renamo guerrillas have been
demobilised and reintegrated into society, including 90 former members of the
Military Junta.
“Peace
is the responsibility of all of us”, he declared. “It is not just the absence
of war, but a way of life”. People should not be afraid of “a diversity of
opinions”, he added, calling on all Mozambicans “to cultivate a spirit of
tolerance and reconciliation”.
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