Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi argued that the country would have made considerable progress in the war against terror had it had received more resources.
The statement was made during a speaking event in the National War College, in Washington D.C. Relaying what he had said at the event to his Facebook followers, Nyusi said that he had requested the United States for more support for Mozambique’s Defence and Security Forces (FDS), the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), who are fighting an insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
Comment
Nyusi has been on a charm offensive at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. He posed with US President Joe Biden during the dinner traditionally offered in honour of the heads of states and governments present in New York; he also posed with UN Secretary General António Guterres; and in his address to the General Assembly, he spoke about the peace process in Mozambique, involving the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of Renamo’s former guerilla fighters, as well as the fighting against terrorism and the military cooperation from RDF and SAMIM
He held a meeting with the World Bank Managing Director of Operations, Anna Bjerde; he also met with American companies and businesspeople; and signed a $500 million Connectivity and Coastal Resilience Pact with the Millenium Challenge Corporation.
What is ironic about Nyusi asking for help from the Americans to fight the insurgency in his native Cabo Delgado province is that people within his inner sanctum accuse the US of “sabotaging” the exploitation of natural gas in the province.
Alberto Chipande, the Patriarch of the Makonde ethnic group, of which Nyusi is part, said recently that there had been a joint force (comprising Mozambican and American forces) “in Mocímboa da Praia to protect the project, but Colin Powell abandoned me, and I asked: ‘where are you going?’. And he left. France stayed. Then more Americans returned, not to Mocímboa da Praia Praia, but to Palma. How? You abandon and go to Palma and to do what?”
It is true that Chipande is not the head of state, but he speaks for the group in matters related to Cabo Delgado.
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