Mozambique to receive support from Algeria in anti-terror fight

ALGIERS,  Algeria 

Algeria has pledged that it will support Mozambique in its fight against terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique's news agency AIM reported Monday.

Summarizing a four day working visit to Algeria, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi made the announcement on Sunday.

He said that both delegations spoke of forms of equipping, exchanges of information"; adding that an instrument that will guide cooperation in defence and security”, will be concluded.

While work on the giding document is being moves forward, Nyusi added, the Algerian government has promised immediate support in individual equipment for members of the local militias who are fighting the terrorists alongside the armed forces.

Mozambique's ties with Algeria are decades old. Fighters in the Mozambican independence war received their own training in Algeria in the 1960s.

President Felipe Nyusi's announcement comes after Mozambique's government confirmed on February 27 that over 60,000 people were driven from their homes by a wave of recent jihadist attacks in the restive north.

The hydrocarbon rich Cabo Delgado province has been facing attacks for six years. 

Since July 2021 troops from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community are deployed in support of the Mozambican army.