Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi warned on Friday that terrorism could divide the country, advocating that everyone unite to fight rebel groups in Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique.
“Terrorism can divide us (…). If we play around, we could be left without a homeland,” declared the Mozambican head of state, during a graduation ceremony at the Academy of Police Sciences (Acipol), on the outskirts of the Mozambican capital, Maputo.
According to Filipe Nyusi, the resolution of the problem in the north depends on the unity of Mozambicans and the foreign forces that are supporting them in the fight against armed groups in Cabo Delgado should be cherished.
“We have to be united (…) Terrorism is one of the only things that the whole world comes together to fight. The region has come together to fight terrorism. So how come the country itself, which is experiencing terrorism itself, doesn’t come together to fight it?” questioned Filipe Nyusi.
“We don’t have the moral strength to speak ill of those who come to help us,” added the Mozambican president, rejecting the argument that poverty is the factor behind the war in Cabo Delgado and also the suggestion of a line of dialogue with the terrorists, defended above all by the two opposition parties in Mozambique’s parliament.
“There is no poverty in Chicualacuala [Gaza province, in the south of the country],” Nyusi said, warning that “today [the war] is there [Cabo Delgado] tomorrow it could be here [Maputo]”.
“I want to honour all the young people who are keeping this country intact. I speak to some of them and, after two days, the young person is gone. (…) There can’t be people who, without responsibility, use the people who sacrifice themselves on the ground to play politics,” added Filipe Nyusi, expressing the Mozambican executive’s intention to “continue to invest in these young people”.
The province of Cabo Delgado has been facing an armed insurgency for six years, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State. After a slight lull in 2023, these attacks have multiplied in recent weeks, creating around 100,000 displaced people in February alone, as well as a trail of destruction, death and mismatched families.
This insurgency has led to a military response since July 2021, with the support of Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community, liberating districts near the gas projects, but new waves of attacks have emerged in the south of the region.
Since 2017, the conflict has displaced more than a million people, according to UN agencies, and killed around 4,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
Lusa
