Member countries of the Southern African Development Community, the main multilateral group in the south of the continent, agreed this Wednesday (12) to extend the stay of their troops in northern Mozambique, where the government is trying to fight an insurgent group linked to the state. Islamic.
On Monday (10), a report by the leaf showed the impacts of the conflict on the population of Cabo Delgado. In four years, at least 3,000 people have died and 735,000 have had to leave their homes to flee violence and climate chaos – 147,000 of them are up to five years old.
The South African-led military group began sending troops in June, who would initially stay in Mozambique for three months. In October, the mission was extended until January, and now it will be extended once again. Wednesday’s statement did not specify the new period for which soldiers will remain in the region.
“The community has noted the good progress made since the beginning of the mission in Mozambique and has extended its mandate,” the organization said.
In all, 16 countries make up the African group. According to August data, South Africa provided 1,500 men for the mission and most of the heavy military equipment. Zimbabwe, Botswana and Angola are still part of the force. Rwanda, which is not a member of SADC, was another to send soldiers to the country.
US and EU military teams also provide training to the Mozambican Armed Forces, and Russian and South African mercenaries are suspected of being active in the conflict alongside Maputo.
Initially, the Mozambican government was reluctant to provide international aid, but the situation began to change when the country’s military began to lose territory to the insurgents. After the arrival of foreign troops, several areas were retaken from the militias, including MocÃmboa da Praia, an important city in Cabo Delgado, 290 km from the region’s capital, Pemba.
According to security forces, all the insurgents’ bases were destroyed. It is estimated that, at the beginning of the conflict, the rebels gathered around 3,000 fighters – a number that may have dropped today, due to casualties caused by the advance of international troops.
Located in the extreme north of the former Portuguese colony, Cabo Delgado is historically a poor and isolated region, which seemed to have hit the jackpot ten years ago with the discovery of vast deposits of natural gas.
In April of last year, however, the French company Total halted a billion-dollar project after the Islamic militia attacked the city of Palma, almost on the border with Tanzania and close to the company’s premises.
The municipality was surrounded by terrorists on the date on which the French group announced the resumption of works on the gas extraction refinery. There were reports that much of the city had been destroyed and that corpses were lying in the streets. The government said dozens died in the attacks, without giving exact figures.
About 19% of the population of Mozambique is Muslim, a group smaller only than the Catholics, who are 27%. In Cabo Delgado, the proportion is inverted to 53% and 36%, respectively.
In addition to armed conflict, those displaced by conflict still suffer from natural disasters, accelerated by climate change. In five decades, from 1970 to 2019, 79 extreme events occurred in the Portuguese-speaking country, which places it in second place among the most affected on the African continent, behind South Africa (90), according to data from the WMO (Meteorological Organization). World) — in China, the global leader, there were 721.
Environmental impacts have also affected the availability of resources such as drinking water. According to data from the Red Cross for Africa, Cabo Delgado counted 3,400 cases of cholera in August 2021, while in the same period of the previous year the figure was 2,200. Diarrhea, the second leading cause of death for children under five, exceeded 28,600 in the first half of 2021.
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