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Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor. (Photo: Flickr / GCIS)
“If it’s more intelligence support, if it’s the SA Navy patrolling the coast, if it’s help from our Defense Force, we as South Africa are ready,” Naledi Pandor told Parliament.
South Africa stands ready to help Mozambique counter the growing Islamist insurgency in the north of the country once it has heard from Maputo about the help it needs.
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The Minister for International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, told parliament on Wednesday that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had asked Mozambique for a roadmap on its requirements from the region as early as May.
He said that once Mozambique has submitted the roadmap, South Africa and other SADC members could decide how to help.
“If it’s more intelligence support, if it’s the SA Navy patrolling the coast, if it’s assistance from our Defense Force, we as South Africa are ready,” Pandor told Parliament’s International Relations Portfolio Committee at a virtual meeting.
“But we must have that indication from the Mozambican government,” he said, adding that it would not be correct, as suggested by a parliamentarian, for South Africa to send a fact-finding mission to the Cabo Delgado province where the insurgency was taking place. as it was up to Mozambique to decide what help it needed.
Presentation on Cabo Delgado
He said Mozambique had been asked for this roadmap on May 19 at a summit of the SADC Body for Policy, Defense and Security Cooperation in Harare. At the summit, regional heads of state had directed the SADC secretariat to urgently explore ways to share intelligence among member states to counter terrorism in Mozambique and more generally.
Member States were also urged to support Mozambique in its fight against the terrorist insurgency.
Pandor said that at a full SADC summit on August 17, regional leaders confirmed SADC’s commitment to supporting Mozambique. But the summit had noted that SADC committees that had received instructions from the Harare summit on May 19 to explore ways SADC could help Mozambique had not yet done so because Maputo had not yet submitted its roadmap. of needs.
Pandor told the parliamentary committee that the insurgency in northern Mozambique had a number of implications for South Africa. These included:
- People displaced by the insurgency could end up seeking refuge in South Africa. Pandor said the UN had estimated that some 250,000 people or 10% of Cabo Delgado’s population had been displaced by the insurgency;
- There was a great opportunity for South Africa to import natural gas from the huge reserves that had been discovered in Cabo Delgado, so the security of the province was of great interest to South Africa and its energy diversification strategy; and
- South Africa’s security agencies needed to improve their capabilities and data collection to allow South Africa to make the appropriate decisions on how to respond to the insurgency.
Pandor expressed particular concern about reports of the capture of the port city of Mocimboa da Praia in August. According to security analysts, the city remains in the hands of insurgents, although the Mozambican security forces recently began a campaign to take it back. DM
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