‘Terrorism, violent extremism have brutally affected some part of Mozambique' - President

MAPUTO, Mozambique

President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi said on Friday that “terrorism and violent extremism have brutally affected some districts of Cabo Delgado,” in the north of the country, but the ongoing military offensive is allowing a gradual return to normality.

Nyusi was making his end of year speech, which this time the head of state did not address after Christmas, for reasons which the Presidency has not explained.

Repeating in essence what he had already said in Thursday’s speech in parliament on “the general situation of the nation,” he noted that the joint offensive of the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Rwanda had reduced the action of armed groups in Cabo Delgado.

“We welcome the commitment, dedication and patriotic sense of the FDS as they gradually succeeded in restoring tranquility in places affected by terrorism,” he said.

On the security front, the actions of Junta Military, an armed dissidence of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, also constituted a threat to stability in the central region of the country.

But, he continued, a country is not only marked by adversity, as the executive has managed to contain the spread of the pandemic, grow the economy to a projected 2.1 percent by the end of the year and expand essential services of water, electricity, education, roads, railways and bridges.

Also in the area of the economy, the country experienced a major development in natural gas projects in the Rovuma basin, with the departure in November from shipyards in South Korea to Mozambique of the first floating natural gas production platform in Africa.

“It has been 365 days of making our way. In 2022, we want to increase our resilience and the diversification of our economy in order to reduce vulnerabilities to external shocks, financial, environmental and various risks,” he stressed.

For next year, Filipe Nyusi said the country has to be more “creative” in fighting the pandemic.