AS fears mount that the Muslim-dominated province of Cabo Delgado could become the next frontier for prolonged jihadist rebellion on the continent, the Mozambican government should take military assistance from external partners and wisely use force to contain the militants’ expansion, the International Crisis Group (ICG) has advised.
CHIPA GONDITII
This comes amid reluctance by Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi to accept regional military aid in a conflict that has already claimed nearly 3 000 lives.
According to ICG’s latest report titled Stemming the Insurrection in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado, Mozambique can only contain the ongoing rebellion with foreign assistance.
“Whichever partners he (Nyusi) chooses, any external intervention should be measured in how it uses force, so that it can both respond to the very real security threat posed by the militants but also eventually allocate enough resources to protect civilians when they return to their native districts,” ICG said.
“A heavy deployment of regional troops unfamiliar with the local terrain may not be necessary. Instead, Maputo should welcome bespoke African and international assistance to support its own special forces, who are receiving training primarily from a few Western partners. It should task these special forces to spearhead restricted military operations to contain and then degrade al-Shabab.”
Mozambique was also advised to patrol coastal waters so as to cut off the insurgents’ supply routes.
“Patrolling territorial waters could also deny militants opportunities to move fighters and supplies via coastal waters. If residents can be persuaded to return to areas they vacated, Mozambique’s other forces should focus on providing security around these population centres to benefit civilians and humanitarian actors,” the report read.
The country’s army, which significantly shrank after the 1992 peace deal ending the country’s civil war, is in disrepair, a soft target for militants who have overrun many of its positions and plundered its weapons stockpiles.
Under pressure to respond to the Cabo Delgado crisis, Nyusi dispatched elite paramilitary police units with air support from a South African private military company led by former Zimbabwe National Army officer Colonel Lionel Dyck. The mercenaries stopped the militants’ advance toward the provincial capital Pemba and destroyed some of their camps but was unable to neutralise them.
The Mozambican government has thus been pressing its foreign partners to provide the resources, including lethal assistance, that it says it needs to shore up its military, which Nyusi now wants to be the primary force tasked with fighting the militants.
However, concerns have also been raised by foreign partners over human rights violations allegedly committed by Mozambique’s own forces.
“Those partners are concerned, too, about reports of abuses committed against the population by security forces and potential leaks of government weapons into militants’ hands as a result of alleged graft and indiscipline,” the report read.
Southern African Development Community states, which see Cabo Delgado’s conflict as endangering their own security, are meanwhile seeking to build international support to deploy their own troops into Mozambique but are facing resistance from Nyusi.
