11 Jan 2022

After succeeding in its mission to push back terrorist insurgency in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado region, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is now looking to improve peace keeping operations there in order to bring civilian life back to normalcy.

Defence, Justice and Security Minister, Mr Kagiso Mmusi said this in an interview on the sidelines of the SADC Troika Summit, which took in Lilongwe, Malawi yesterday.

Mr Mmusi said the SADC Mission In Mozambique (SAMIM) had achieved much success in Cabo Delgado, and SADC now wanted to broaden its operations to include among other interventions, humanitarian assistance.

“SAMIM has been operating on what has been termed ‘scenario 6’ which was fighting the insurgents. Now that the terrorist threat has been reduced, we are moving towards ‘scenario 5’ where we look to assist life return to normalcy in the affected region. This does not just need the army, but the police, humanitarian aid and other aspects being discussed,” Mr Mmusi revealed.

He said towards the end of December, the SAMIM head of mission released a report detailing their experiences, successes and what was necessary for the mission to execute its tasks.

“In response, responsible ministers of the SADC Organ on Defence, Politics and Security Troika met virtually last week, and the Troika chairperson, South African President His Excellency Mr Cyril Ramaphosa resolved that since sensitive issues were up for discussion, it was important for a physical meeting of the Troika heads of state as well as the SADC Extraordinary Summit,” Mr Mmusi said.

The Botswana delegation, led by Vice President Mr Slumber Tsogwane, held a meeting on Monday to discuss their position on all pending issues relating to SAMIM before proceeding to Tuesday’s Troika meeting and the SADC Council of Ministers.

“The Troika is discussing recommendations on how to improve the SAMIM operations due to be handed to the SADC Council of Ministers as there are some financial implications.

The council will forward the resolutions to the Extraordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government which is due to meet on Wednesday for the final approval,” Mr Mmusi explained.

He added that he visited the Botswana SAMIM troop contingent in December and was pleased with their morale and level of commitment.

“Our troops morale is quite good. They revealed to me the progress achieved thus far; with ordinary people having returned to their homes, others back to farming and children returning to school. But we do realise there are areas where insurgents still strategically hide, that is why we need to discuss a change of our own strategy to expel the threat and also ensure stability to normal civilian life,” Mr Mmusi said.

He explained that expelling the threat of terrorism in any part of Southern Africa was necessary because if allowed to fester such threats could easily engulf the entire subcontinent. Ends