Own Correspondent

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo says the agenda of the SADC summit on Monday has been set and excludes the Zimbabwean and Mozambiquen crisis.

Moyo says the agenda was set with the “primary focus being to facilitate the handover of chairmanship of the SADC Summit from the United Republic of Tanzania to the Republic of Mozambique”.

He said the summit will be held under the theme, “40 Years Building Peace and Security, and Promoting Development and Resilience in the Face of Global Challenges”.

SADC and the African Union (AU) should urgently assist Mozambique to stem the violent insurgency in Cabo Delgado province and bring relief to thousands of people in dire need.

This should be a priority for SADC leaders as they meet for their 40th annual summit on Monday. At the summit, Tanzania will hand over the position of SADC chair to Mozambique.

The security situation in northern Mozambique is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Attacks by violent extremists have claimed over 1 000 lives and displaced 250 000 people since October 2017. Infrastructure has been destroyed and citizens robbed of their livelihoods.

The number of incidents has dramatically escalated this year, forcing scores to abandon their homes. Communities are caught between heavy-handed government responses and attacks by insurgents, some of which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for.

Military action by the Mozambique government, including the continued use of mercenaries, has not stopped the attacks and has worsened the plight of civilians. Left unchecked, the insurgency is likely to grow and spill over into neighbouring countries. Human security in the region could further deteriorate as seen in other parts of Africa afflicted by violent extremism such as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Lake Chad Basin.

Mozambique should not be expected to deal with a potential regional security threat of this gravity alone. As a member of SADC and the AU, it has recourse to regional and continental support.

Mozambique is also a state party to 15 of the 19 international conventions and protocols against terrorism, and the AU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism – all of which provide for assistance from the international community under the current circumstances.

Various SADC instruments oblige the regional body to come to Mozambique’s aid. For instance, Article 6(1) of the SADC Mutual Defence Pact stipulates that an ‘An armed attack against a state party shall be considered a threat to regional peace and security and such an attack shall be met with immediate collective action.’

In addition, SADC’s 2015 regional counter-terrorism strategy, which was developed in line with the United Nations global counter-terrorism strategy, provides for assistance in preventing youth radicalisation, border security, humanitarian aid and tackling the root causes of terrorism.

SADC should invoke Article 6(1) of the Pact and implement its 2015 counter-terrorism strategy to help combat the insurgency in northern Mozambique and prevent a spill-over into the region.

The SADC summit of the Troika of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security held in Harare on 19 May 2020 put the Mozambican insurgency on the SADC agenda. But after hours of deliberations, the meeting concluded its work without any concrete agreement on SADC’s role. The upcoming SADC summit is a crucial opportunity to take decisive action to help end the crisis.

Asked whether recent reports that Maputo had specifically asked for Zimbabwe’s military assistance were true, Dr Moyo said:

“On 19 May 2020, Zimbabwe convened an Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit plus Mozambique which specifically focused on the security situation in the Republic of Mozambique.

“That meeting was an important milestone in the efforts to address the challenges in Cabo Delgado. More importantly, it was a demonstration of the fact that the matter was not a problem of Mozambique alone but a regional concern which called on all SADC member states to join forces to deal with the terrorism situation.”

He said Zimbabwe, in its capacity as chair of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, has been championing a regional approach to address the terrorism threat and has confidence in the capacity of regional security institutions to deal with the matter.

Zimbabwe and the rest of the region, said Dr Moyo, are unequivocal in their support and solidarity with the Republic of Mozambique.