Magosi visits SADC troops in Mozambique
Will pay courtesy call on President Felipe Nyusi and all stakeholders
The Executive Secretary of Southern African Development Community ( SADC) Elias Mpedi Magosi left Wednesday on a five- day official visit to Maputo, Mozambique.
Whilst there he will appreciate the work of the SADC standby force, SADC Mission in Mozambique ( SAMIM), which arrived in Mozambique in July and proceeded to Cabo Delgado Province to deal with offensive operations against terrorists and violent extremism. The SADC troops are also expected to consolidate stability of security and create an environment conducive for resettlement of the population and facilitate humanitarian assistance operations and sustainable development. More than 2, 500 people have been killed since the insurgents began fighting in 2017 near the rich oil and gas deposit projects. More than 800, 000 people have been displaced by the fighting since April 2020, while gas projects worth billions have been put on hold.
The Mission has so far made great strides, last month they announced that their offensive operation led to destruction of an Al Sunnah WA Jama’ah ( ASWJ terrorist base south of Chitama settlement in Nangade District and confirmed killing ASWJ base leader, Sheikh Dr Njile North and 18 others.
Magosi will first meet with the President of Mozambique, Fellipe Nyusi before visiting the SADC troops and will return to the Secretariat offices in Gaborone on Sunday.
In an interview before his departure, Magosi confirmed that he is going there to visit President Fellipe Nyusi as well as visit and appreciate the SADC Mission troops in Mozambique.
“I will also meet the head of mission, Professor Mpho Molomo who was appointed by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi to head the Mission, as well as appreciate his mandate and challenges”.
Magosi will also meet with stakeholders and the general troops. The visit could not have come at a better time. It was Magosi himself who early this month was tasked with the responsibility to make a public statement on behalf of the regional economic bloc that the leaders have agreed to extend the deployment of a standby force in Mozambique.
This followed the outcome of the extraordinary summit of the SADC Organ Troika plus Mozambique held in Pretoria. This was after the summit had just considered a progress report and assessment of the regional co- ordination mechanism, as well as recommendations on a way forward in Mozambique.
SADC decided on June 23rd during its extraordinary summit in Maputo, to approve the deployment of a SADC standby force rapid deployment capability mission in Mozambique from the 15th of July to combat acts of terrorism in Cabo Delgado. The Pretoria Summit urged member states, in collaboration with humanitarian agencies, to continue providing humanitarian relief to the population affected by the terrorist attacks including the intangibly displaced people. The summit commended the heads of states and their troops for their remarkable achievements made since the deployment of the mission in July.