Southern Africa's leaders are meeting in the Mozambican capital to discuss the insurgency in the north of the country, which could spill over regional borders.
Portugal to send more soldiers to Mozambique to fight terrorism
Wednesday May 12 2021
A member of the Mozambique security forces patrols on December 9, 2020 in Pemba, Mozambique, where internally displaced people fleeing from unrest in Cabo Delgado sought refuge. PHOTO | AFP
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Portugal will send 60 more soldiers to Mozambique as part of a new cooperation agreement aimed at helping the southern African country to fight insurgency, the Portuguese defence minister has said.
Mr João Cravinho made the announcement on Monday after the signing of the framework cooperation agreement between Lisbon and Maputo with his African counterpart Mr Jaime Neto.
Sixty members of the Portuguese special forces are already training soldiers in Mozambique, following the March 24 attack in the village of Palma, Cabo Delgado, in the northern part of the country.
defenceWeb
Written by defenceWeb -
JCET conclusion in Mozambique.
The United States has concluded a Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) training exercise with Mozambican forces and announced the donation of humanitarian supplies to assist 20 000 families displaced by insecurity in Mozambique. Further training will take place in July.
The US Embassy in Mozambique on 5 May said Ambassador Dennis W Hearne and Mozambican Minister of Defence Jaime Neto commemorated in Maputo the conclusion of the JCET exercise. “Twenty years since the last JCET exercise in Mozambique, this training programme represents the strengthening relationship between the United States of America and the Republic of Mozambique,” the Embassy said.
CPLP will send a mission to Cabo Delgado. Portugals’ foreign minister reiterates that “everyone” understands Mozambique’s resistance to accepting foreign troops.
Mozambique’s defence minister is expected to visit Lisbon next week.
The European Union is preparing to increase cooperation with Mozambique in the area of security, including logistical support and sending a mission for the formation and training of Mozambican armed forces.
“We have been working with the Mozambican authorities” on these matters, head of Portuguese diplomacy Augusto Santos Silva told DW Africa. “Just this morning, I had the pleasure of a phone call with Ms. Verónica Macamo, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique”.
One of the world’s poorest countries could be transformed by Africa’s biggest-ever private investment splurge, but there’s a problem. Increasingly brazen attacks by Islamist insurgents are threatening plans to tap huge natural gas deposits found off Mozambique’s northern coast a decade ago. More than 2,600 people have died and over 700,000 have been displaced since the violence began in 2017. The country’s export ambitions are linked to giant projects by France’s Total SE and Italy’s Eni SpA, an