"Terrorism in Cabo Delgado is a threat to the entire Southern African sub-region"

BEIRA, Mozambique

Terrorism in Cabo Delgado is a threat to the entire Southern African sub-region and not just to Mozambique, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Friday during a working visit to the city of Beira.

"We have accelerated assistance [to Mozambique] as a result of this threat in Cabo Delgado, because it does not affect Mozambique alone, it is a threat to the whole region,” Mnangagwa said.

“If we let it spread, it will affect the whole Southern African Development Community [SADC] region and its countries. So we have to cooperate and deal with it at the source,” he added.

Emmerson Mnangagwa was speaking after closed-door talks with Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, in which the insurgency in the north was one of the topics in focus.

Earlier, during a ceremony to inaugurate locomotives that will link the two countries, the Zimbabwean head of state had announced the delivery of 1,000 tonnes of cereals for the victims of terrorist attacks.

Nyusi said that Mozambicans are “grateful for this unparalleled gesture” and praised the fact that the neighbouring country is “participating significantly in the training of young people in the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) in different specialties”.

“Zimbabwe is giving us the hook to fish, it is not giving us the fish,” said Nyusi, alluding to the training provided to Mozambican troops.

The head of state said that, thanks to that training, young soldiers managed to resist new attacks of insurgents on Palma, a village of the gas projects, attacked about a year ago.

When questioned by Lusa on whether he prefers an expiry date or to establish objectives for the international joint force present in the field, Filipe Nyusi considered that “the biggest goal” is to “end terrorism”, be it in “six months or one year” – being that “terrorism is unpredictable and has no borders”.

Hence the importance of the support that Mozambique is trying to mobilise to fund joint military action, he added.

Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas but has been terrorised since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

The conflict has led to more than 3,100 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and more than 817,000 displaced people, according to Mozambican authorities.

Since July, an offensive by government troops with the support of Rwanda, which was later joined by SADC, allowed for an increase in security, recovering several areas where there was a rebel presence.