Cape Times

SADC must lead the fight against insurgents in Cabo Delgado

- SHANNON EBRAHIM Ebrahim is the Group Foreign Editor

SOUTHERN Africa must show the world that it can resolve what is an African problem in Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, and the SADC must take the lead. The SADC is ready and willing to act by deploying the SADC standby force, but it just needs to be invited to do so by the government of Mozambique.

As Minister for Internatio­nal Relations and Co-operation Naledi Pandor has said, the SADC should lead the process and determine the nature and conditions of support from external sources such as the EU or Portugal.

Minister of State Security Ayanda Dlodlo has said that Mozambique's reticence to enlist the help of its neighbours to quash the insurgency in Cabo Delgado ran counter to SADC's regional assessment of how best to speedily halt the violence.

What has caused some unease in the region has been the overtures made to the EU, and former colonial powers Portugal and France in terms of security co-operation in addressing the threat in Cabo Delgado.

While assistance from developed nations is welcome, it should be under the auspices of an SADC-led military and political strategy which ensures that Africans take charge of dealing with the crisis on their own terms in collaborat­ion with the government of Mozambique.

Part of the challenge, however, is the fact that Mozambique has been vacillatin­g on what support it will accept from the region.

It is believed that negotiatio­ns are continuing between Mozambique and other SADC countries on the nature of the deployment of a regional force.

But Mozambican President Felipe Nyusi allegedly wants SADC troops to be restricted to securing the perimeter around the gas infrastruc­ture on the Afungi peninsula.

The alleged preference of the government of Mozambique is that its army should lead offensive operations against the insurgents beyond that perimeter and it will rely on assistance from military training companies.

South Africa would like to see a number of SADC countries contributi­ng troops to the SADC standby force to be deployed in Mozambique.

Portugal already has a military training force on the ground in Mozambique and has articulate­d its willingnes­s to integrate other forces and support that may be required.

The exact details of the proposed French security support in Cabo Delgado is unclear, but what has been widely noted is that the French oil and gas giant Total has appointed a man with war experience to head its operations in northern Mozambique. Martin Deffontain­es is Total's new man in Mozambique.

The SADC is all too aware that foreign military interventi­ons did not assist other African countries to quash jihadist insurgenci­es, as their strategies were largely flawed, failed to address the root causes of the insurgency, and relied on solely military approaches at the expense of political ones.

Mozambique and the SADC cannot afford to ignore these lessons at this critical juncture.

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