The Denis Hurley Peace Institute, an NGO that is part of the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, regularly compiles reports on Northern Mozambique from its sources in Pemba, Mozambique. We co-publish, with the DHPI, those reports here.
COUNTRY UPDATE: 5 October 2020
Johan Viljoen
Mozambique government requests military assistance from EU
The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, said on 30 September that he is sure that the European Union’s response to Mozambique, which asked for support for the training of its forces, will be positive.
“We received in the European Union the letter sent by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, it is a very clear letter. Mozambique is very clear in identifying the areas in which European cooperation can support them, namely in the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado and I am sure that the European Union will give a positive answer “, said Augusto Santos Silva.
The head of Portuguese diplomacy also stated that Portugal, as a member of the European Union, will collaborate “actively so that the response is positive”.
Augusto Santos Silva recalled that there is a tradition of very strong cooperation between the European Union and Mozambique and the matter has already been discussed in the European Parliament, a forum where MEPs said that Europe had an obligation to help Maputo’s forces.
“Thirdly, the EU will help because, as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country that will occupy the presidency of the Council of the European Union from January, I have already had an opportunity to have a formal meeting with the high representative Josep Borrel and one of the themes was the north of Mozambique, support for Mozambique” stressed Santos Silva.
“Based on all this information, I am sure that the European Union’s response will not be delayed, it will be positive, and of course Portugal will contribute to it quickly and positively,” he said.
The Mozambican government on 29 September asked the EU for support in logistics and specialized training of its forces to stop the armed incursions of groups in Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country.
Mozambique: US asks Zimbabwe to support fight in Cabo Delgado
On 30 September the USA asked Zimbabwe to help combat armed attacks in Cabo Delgado, where Americans have investments in natural gas. In return, Zimbabwe called for withdrawal of U.S. sanctions against the country’s officials. The request for support to combat armed attacks in Cabo Delgado was made by the US Deputy Secretary for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, to Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister, Sibusiso Moyo.
During the conversation, according to unidentified sources cited by the financial agency Bloomberg, Moyo called on the United States to first withdraw sanctions imposed on Zimbabwean officials.
Despite Zimbabwe experiencing an economic collapse, the country maintains an army in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as supporting US operations in Somalia, and having a history of involvement in Mozambique alongside FRELIMO, notes Bloomberg. Relations between the two neighbouring nations converge at the Mozambican port of Beira, a key point for Zimbabwe’s foreign trade, an important gateway for imports to the country.
Dialogue is the road to peace, says former Mozambican President Chissano
Former President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, says it is necessary to find the deep reasons for the violence in Cabo Delgado to ensure peace in the country.
For the former President of the Republic, it is necessary to make a clear diagnosis about what is happening in the northernmost region of Mozambique. Chissano doubts that the insurgents’ motives are economic. He recalls that there are African countries with natural resources, such as gas and oil, but who live in peace.
“The reason for this war must be dug out to find the means to quell it. I don’t know if it is war when we have terrorism. I don’t know. War has an opponent, in which we fight, war is declared. But this one … is this war? “, asked Chissano on Thursday 1 October in Maputo, thus highlighting the unknowns surrounding an insurgency, which has already claimed numerous lives.
Even so, the former head of state emphasizes dialogue as the only way to resolve this faceless war and others, whatever they may be. “Dialogue should never be put aside. Now, we need to find out who to talk to and what to talk about. We did this with the Portuguese and with RENAMO”, he said.
Regarding the attacks in central Mozambique, attributed to the self-proclaimed “Junta Militar” of RENAMO, Joaquim Chissano says that there has always been an attempt to avoid conflict with the opposition since 1975. One of the tools used was to dialogue with the regimes that supported the guerrillas of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO). “And we did it collectively with the Frontline countries. We talked to Ian Smith, we talked to apartheid Foreign Minister Pik Botha, in the context of the Frontline countries.”
The lawyer Filipe Sitoe suggests that what Mozambique achieved in 1975 be rescued – social justice, which, according to him, should never be weakened to maintain stability in the country. “I think that the sharing of natural resources, the fair distribution of scarce resources, should be a priority now, in the 21st century, in the face of globalization, in the face of unbridled exploitation of natural resources.” He drew attention to another aspect of the conflict in Cabo Delgado: “We have to be aware of the geostrategic interests of the great national powers.”
RENAMO deputy António Macuiane pointed out social inequalities as the main cause of conflicts in Mozambique. And he suggested as a solution: “Consider that in Mozambique there are second and first Mozambicans. Second are those who do not belong to the dominant party. This must be corrected. This is where we will find, if this is corrected, effective peace, effective stability. “
These findings were made during a roundtable to analyze internal forces in the context of the transition from monoparty to multiparty in Mozambique.
Mozambican refugees forcibly deported from Tanzania
More than 830 Mozambican citizens who had taken refuge in the United Republic of Tanzania, due to the conflict in Cabo Delgado, have been returned to the country, Rádio Moçambique reported on Saturday 3 October.
The Cabo Delgado Secretary of State, Armindo Ngunga, explained that these compatriots were compulsorily returned to Mozambique and are currently at the Negomano border, in Mueda district, reads the RM report.
“They [the Mozambican refugees] were compulsively returned here. They are currently at the Negomano border in Mueda, and we are taking good care of them. We already have all the conditions in place for them to be able to survive,” he said.
