Mozambique: Veterans ask for support to fight terrorism

By Jorge Joaquim

Veterans fighting terrorists in Cabo Delgado province need proper equipment and logistical support, the head of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle, Fernando Faustino, said.

There are veterans fighting in the province’s districts of Nangade, Macomia, Palma, Mocímboa da Praia and recently they were in Muidumbe, he added.

Faustino said that the veterans’ participation in some military missions had been frequent, including in responding to attacks by the Renamo Military Junta dissident paramilitary group in the centre of the country.

Meanwhile, a Portuguese delegation will meet with the Mozambican government next week to find out what support the country needs to combat terrorism, the Portuguese ambassador to Mozambique said.

Portugal’s defence minister, João Gomes Cravinho, said last week that Portugal was prepared to provide military aid to the government. The conflict is also being discussed today by the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Portuguese members of the different parliamentary groups “have been very dynamic… in drawing attention to the problems that are happening in Cabo Delgado, to the urgent humanitarian situation in the province, that greatly concern all of us who follow this issue and have a special relationship with Mozambique,” the ambassador, Maria Amélia Paiva, said.

The violence in Mozambique has spiked this year in this aid-dependent country. The insurgents have occupied a strategic port in the town of Mocimboa da Praia since August 12. More than 2,500 people have been killed and over 500,000 displaced due the attacks.