Mozambique: Terrorist threat in Cabo Delgado prevails, SADC warns

MAPUTO, Mozambique

The head of the Southern African Development Community Military Mission (SAMIM) in Cabo Delgado warns that the terrorist threat there persists, despite the setbacks that the rebels have suffered.

“We are stabilizing the situation, but we cannot say that we have completely overcome terrorism,” Mpho Molomo said during a lecture at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo.

According to the SAMIM head of mission, the groups that have terrorized the province since 2017 are still at large in the bush, sporadically carrying out counter-offensives which can only be stopped with the cooperation of the forces of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

“We have to cooperate to ensure that if there is an attack on this side, the terrorists are blocked on the other side,” Mpho Molomo noted, acknowledging that foreign forces supporting Mozambique in the fight against terrorism have not yet destroyed all the rebel bases.

The head of SAMIM also warned of the trauma that the conflict had inflicted on women and children.

“I had the opportunity to visit some of the [IDP] reception centres, and it’s shocking to see how brutal people can be. I met women who were raped in the forests. When they capture a woman, they first test her for AIDS, and if she has the negative result, they take her as a wife,” he declared.

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

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), about 784,000 persons have been internally displaced by the conflict, which has killed about 4,000, according to the ACLED conflict registry project.

Since July last year, an offensive by government troops, with external support, has increased security, recovering several parts of Cabo Delgado from rebel control, notably the town of Mocímboa da Praia, which had been occupied since August, 2020.

In addition to SADC, the Mozambican forces have had the support of soldiers and police from Rwanda, within the scope of cooperation in the field of defence between the two states. - Deutsche Welle