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The crisis stemming from the violence of Islamic extremists in the northeastern province of Mozambique, which claimed the lives of some 2,000 people and led to half a million taking refuge, appears to be finally on the international agenda.
The Bishop of Pemba has been warning about the drama of hundreds of thousands for months without anyone responding. In recent days, several countries have expressed their solidarity with Maputo. The most recent were those of the United States, with the counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales, meeting on Thursday with the president of Mozambique and stating that Washington is “seriously interested” in facing together “the challenge of terrorism.” But the passage from words to actions still seems a long way off.
Last week, the Portuguese Minister of Defense, João Gomes Cravinho, opened the door to Portuguese participation in a military mission in Cabo Delgado, a Mozambique province devastated by terrorism since 2017. “Portugal is available. Mozambique is a sister country of the CPLP, a country with which we feel close and obviously we are always available. First of all, it is up to the Mozambican authorities to establish what they consider useful, “he said last week.
Since then, nothing new. Asked if the Portuguese Government has already assumed this availability for Maputo or if the templates of an eventual mission at its own headquarters have already been discussed, the Ministry of National Defense limited itself to saying that it has nothing to add in relation to the initial statements. of the government.
The week before, a joint statement by Maputo and Brussels reported that the European Union (EU) had responded to Mozambique’s request for help in September. However, there would still be a “deepening of the debates on the modalities of this support in terms of humanitarian aid, development aid and in the field of security.” Portugal can play a decisive role when, from January, it assumes the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
“We must support the State of Mozambique in its effort to guarantee what is a basic responsibility, which is the security of the population,” Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said in an interview with Deutsche Welle. “And we have to support Mozambique because it is being a victim of international terrorist networks that constitute a direct threat to our way of life,” he added. The minister said that the European response will come “in the terms defined by the Mozambican authorities”, but regardless, the EU has already approved a new cooperation project, which will be managed by the Portuguese cooperation, in Cabo Delgado, to support education, vocational training employment with young people.
Regarding the specific assistance from Lisbon, Santos Silva recalled that, from a conversation between the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, and Prime Minister António Costa, it was concluded that bilateral support should focus on “education and training” for security level, which “Mozambique believes are the most necessary and in which Portugal can help.
Should Portugal send military personnel to the land, back to the province, then to the district, where the war broke out between the Portuguese regime and the Frelimo? “Cooperation at the request of Mozambique should be given as far as possible, but particularly for the training areas of special counter-guerrilla and police troops, or on the logistics side,” says Fernando Jorge Cardoso, researcher at the Institute’s Center for International Studies. . University of Lisbon. “That is, in other words, boots on the ground [botas no terreno]no. For the wounds, despite being convinced that the Portuguese troops would be well received in any part of the country. But as soon as something, so to speak, inconvenient happened, that feeling could completely change.“continues the professor.
Lourenço do Rosário, president of the Mozambique National Peer Review Forum, has a different view, a government scrutiny mechanism created by the African Union. “Regarding the return of Portuguese military personnel to Mozambique, I do not see how national public opinion can be against it. On the one hand, Portugal has the best military institutional memory in the region in question.On the other hand, taking into account that multilateral mechanisms always take longer, the contact between the president and the prime minister on the subject was welcomed, especially after the statement by the Portuguese defense minister, which shows total openness and availability ” .
For the rector of the Polytechnic University of Maputo, if there is a bilateral intervention or within the scope of a European mission, the ideal for Mozambique would be to send personnel from Portugal, “due to military background” and France, “due to the interests that has in the region “. [o maior projeto da gás natural é da francesa Total]In addition to having two neighboring territories, Mayote and Reunion, they would be the actors that could best intervene, in addition to the SADC countries (Southern African Development Community) ”, he defends. “The problem – says Cardoso in turn – is that these countries are not willing to send troops. The only two countries with any support capacity are Zimbabwe and Angola.”
For Lourenço do Rosário, the slowness of the international response will be related to errors in the recent past of the country, from the hidden debt scandal in 2016 to the “difficulties in managing external contributions in a transparent manner” in terms of aid and reconstruction by Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, wants in connection with funds to deal with the pandemic. “Clearly, Mozambique has been viewed with great suspicion.”
Fernando Jorge Cardoso, who finds the root of the problem of Islamic extremism when President Samora Machel authorized scholarships in countries like Saudi Arabia, says that the Mozambican government is unable to cope with an insurgency, which has gone from being localized to something of much greater proportions with the arrival in August 2019 of international jihadists who fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The actions of terrorism began with more intensity and the perfect storm was added: it enters with local complicity and develops with criminal networks for the trafficking of cocaine and heroin.”
Government and international community, what should they do? “The top priority is to win the war. There must be an effective and intelligent response, otherwise the situation will become untenable ”, concludes Fernando Jorge Cardoso.
