"Peace is returning to Cabo Delgado, Mozambique" – President Ramaphosa

KINSHASA, DR Congo

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday that peace was returning to northern Mozambique following the military intervention by countries in the southern African region to combat violent extremism in Cabo Delgado province.

"The pleasing thing was that the people who had fled the various areas in Cabo Delgado are now returning to their homes, with increased confidence that SADC has been helping them to bring about peace,” Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement released by the Presidency.

The South African head of state, who concluded an official visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), where he took part this week in the 42nd summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), said the regional bloc “was also pleased” with “progress made in pushing back the insurgents in the Cabo Delgado area of the Republic of Mozambique”.

In this regard, Ramaphosa added that the SADC had reaffirmed its “total commitment to support the people of Mozambique.

The South African president also said he was “pleased” with the progress made by SADC in setting up its Logistics Centre in Botswana “that will assist the countries in the region to deal with emergency situations” and with “progress made in the already operational anti-terrorism centre that is situated in the Republic of Tanzania”.

"“We will be able to bring around the various assistance measures when there are either situations where our armed forces needs to intervene, so there should be a good logistics depot or where there are other forms of emergency”,” Ramaphosa said about the logistics centre in Botswana.

At the SADC heads of state and government meeting in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, Namibia’s President Hage Geingob received from his South African counterpart the chairmanship of the Body on Cooperation in Politics, Defence and Security, which Ramaphosa led in a year of containment against the Covid-19 pandemic.

At least nine personnel deployed in the SADC military force in Mozambique (SAMIM) died fighting in Cabo Delgado province, according to Pretoria’s final communiqué of the regional summit meeting released today. - Lusa