Deutsche Welle (English edition)
Rwanda's military intervention in Mozambique raises eyebrows
Rwandan forces have driven out Islamist militants in Mozambique's gas-rich Cabo Delgado province. Their success underlines the failure of Mozambique's army, but some observers want Rwanda to say when they will leave.
On August 9, the Rwandan military announced it had taken the strategically important northern Mozambican port of Mocimboa da Praia from alShabab militants. The Kigali daily New Times quoted Brigadier-General Pascal Muhizi as saying the Rwandan army had chased out the al-Shabab fighters.
The jihadis had occupied Mocimboa da Praia in the Cabo Delgado province for over a year but fled towards Tanzania on motorcycles. Others melted away into the thick forests south of Mocimboa, Muhizi added. Around 70 militants were killed, according to Rwandan army spokesperson Ronald Rwivanga.
For Rwanda, a small, landlocked East African state, and its President Paul Kagame, retaking Mocimboa da Praia is an important military victory on foreign soil.
Rwanda's contingent of 1,000 soldiers is the biggest foreign force in resource-rich Cabo Delgado, which is the site of a $20 billion (€17 billion) liquefied natural gas project operated by French energy giant Total. But the area has also seen numerous attacks carried out by Islamist jihadis. The violence has uprooted more than 800,000 people.
To help bring back stability, the Southern African Devel
opment Community (SADC) has also contributed troops. But an agreement reached in June between the SADC and the Mozambican government has been hampered by some members lagging on troop commitments. Even South Africa, which was supposed to provide the most troops on a limited, three-month basis, has said it will not meet its troop commitment for "organizational and logistical" reasons.
Rwanda, meanwhile, has used the occasion to showcase itself as the most "competent and best-organized army in Africa." According to army spokesperson Rwivanga, Rwanda takes part in more international peacekeeping missions than any African country.
Mozambique's hapless military
Mozambican army commander Cristovao Chume told Mozambican TV that Rwandan troops achieved their objectives efficiently, adding the Rwandans encountered no major resistance, with shots fired only in a few outlying districts of Mocímboa. However, he did not answer why Mozambique's army had failed to rout the Islamists in the years before foreign troops arrived.
Rwanda's successful intervention has relegated Mozambican forces to bit-part roles in their own country, and this is a scandal, says Mohamed Yassine, an expert on Mozambican foreign policy. He says that the Rwandans achieved more in a few days than the Mozambican army managed in an entire year.
Yassine told DW it was only through Rwanda's successful intervention that the restarting of Total's huge gas project can be contemplated. Total halted the project in April over security concerns.
Rwanda establishes a security zone
Responding to a query from Portuguese news agency LUSA, Mozambique's government confirmed that the Rwandan army had created a 50-km-long (31mile-long) safety zone for the gas project. It also published a map showing the division of operational areas: The Rwandan army will retain control of the towns of Mocimboa da Praia and Palma, which are vital for the
Total Energies project.
"This approach was probably negotiated at the highest political level between Mozambique, France and Rwanda," says Elisio Macamo, an expert on African politics at the University of Basel. For France, moving the biggest gas project in Africa forward is vital, and Paris was even prepared to send troops to secure its interests in northern Mozambique.
In Mozambique, though, there was opposition to allowing a French military presence in Cabo Delgado. So the solution was for Rwandan troops to fill the void and be paid handsomely from both a financial and political perspective, Macamo told DW.
For Rwandan President Kagame, the military success in Cabo Delgado is a major propaganda victory and another sign of Rwanda's increased regional military power in eastern and southern Africa.
Exit strategy demanded
Mozambican peace and security expert Calton Cadeado criticized the national government's inability to defend itself against outside and domestic threats, He says it could cause long-term problems if Mozambique's security forces do not manage without outside help.
"Foreign missions will have to leave Mozambique sooner or later, and we will have to defend ourselves," says Cadeado. Therefore, he says, Mozambique needs an exit strategy for foreign forces and especially one for Rwanda's departure.
Mozambican human rights lawyer Joao Nhampossa agrees:
"We need a strategy immediately for when the foreign troops leave," Nhampossa told DW. He hopes Mozambique will set up an independent commission to deal with the damage caused by the conflict in northern Mozambique and pay reparations for any human rights violations committed by domestic and foreign troops.
So far, though, Rwandan troops are not known to have committed any human rights abuses, Nhampossa explains. In fact, Mocimboa residents seem relieved at their presence and say the Rwandan troops often behave better than the national army — Mozambican soldiers have been accused of looting and causing tensions with locals.
"We're very happy with the presence of the Rwandans," a resident of Mocimboa told the internet site "Carta de Mocambique." Even after the jihadists left, Mozambican soldiers tried to seize goods. "But when we alerted the Rwandans, they intervened, and we are safe."
His conclusion? "The Rwandans bring peace."
permit for his first nine years in Germany.
This barred him from regular employment, moving freely within the country and accessing most welfare programs.
Refugees receive rights
The Geneva Refugee Convention (formally known as the "Convention and protocol relating to the status of refugees") is an indispensable foundation of international refugee protection.
It defines who is a refugee and what rights — and obligations — they have. People are entitled to refugee status if they have left their country because of a "well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion," according to the original wording.
In the aftermath of World War II and in the face of growing political tensions between East and West, the United Nations adopted the convention in Geneva in 1951.
Initially, it was limited to protecting mainly European refugees immediately after World War II. To reflect the changing situation worldwide, a 1967 protocol expanded the convention's scope.
Some 149 states have signed one or both of the conventions.
Key treaty
The Refugee Convention still plays an important role today: it is the only document that obligates states to provide protection to refugees, said Susan Fratzke, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Brussels.
Today, however, people are forced to leave their homes for different reasons than in the Cold War situation, she said: governments are failing, rival groups are fighting for power, economies in home countries are collapsing, and they can't feed their families.
"None of that is included in the [convention]. But that doesn't mean it has become useless. We have to think further and become more creative to meet people's needs," Fratzke told DW.
Even 30 years ago, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) signaled awareness that people had new motivations for fleeing, such as the harsh economic situation in their home region.
"These are not people fleeing persecution but in the hope of a better life," Douglas Stafford, then deputy high commissioner, said in a 1991 DW interview. "We have to be very careful in the future about how we address the problems of economic migrants."
But 30 years on, leaving home for economic reasons still isn't a criteria under the convention.
Host countries in Africa lack resources
Today, almost every African country has signed the Refugee Convention and for decades, several African countries have played host to some of the largest numbers of refugees in the world.
Many African states went "a step further," explained Fratzke, by adopting the Refugee Convention of the Organization of African Unity — the predecessor organization to the African Union. In doing so, signatories give refugees legal rights that aren't covered in the Geneva Refugee Convention.
Abiy Ashenafi, who heads the Migration Unit at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, also thinks the OAU agreement has addressed some of the shortcomings of the overly narrow definition of "refugee" in the Geneva Convention.
Both experts, however, see a problem with implementation: Many of the African countries housing refugees lack resources and are themselves fragile nations with economic difficulties.
Little political will
The Geneva Refugee Convention falls short of its potential. One problem is the lack of binding obligations to share responsibility, says migration expert Abiy Ashenafi, who believes the convention could be reformed to include this.
It also fails to provide for a complaints mechanism for refugees against host states, he wrote in an email to DW.
Another issue, according to Fratzke, is that the convention isn't an executive body. Each signatory must enshrine its commitment to the convention through appropriate asylum laws in the home country.
The problem, she says, is that many states are "unwilling or unable" to do so.
"As a result, it's hard for refugees to get protection, even though they have a right to it under the convention."
Respect and renew current convention
Back in Munich, Hamado Dipama from Burkina Faso criticizes how host nations deal with refugees, which often deviates from the convention.
Deportation is questionable, for example when well-integrated refugees are sent back to volatile home countries, said Dipama, who has been a spokesperson for the Bavarian Refugee Council since 2007.
Dipama personally experienced the fear of deportation from his time living as a "tolerated" refugee. In 2014, he eventually received a "settlement permit" that gave him more rights.
A month ago, Dipama applied for German citizenship — which wasn't an easy step, he said, because it means relinquishing his Burkinabe passport.
As for what a future refugee convention could look like?
"We don't have a big ask." Dipama said. "States should just do what they signed up to in the convention, and amend the document so that refugees from today's problem countries receive more protection."