SADC summit terrorists attacks in Mozambique postponed to May or June

The extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to discuss the terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, has been postponed to May or June.

The summit was originally planned to take place in Maputo in January, but was postponed first to March, and then to May or June, because of the worsening covid-19 pandemic in the region.

Pan African Visions has learned that the summit could take place in a virtual format if the pandemic worsens.

The attacks are also impacting conscription in Cabo Delgado. The Mozambican military has met less than half of its target for conscription in the province, which an official has blamed on the displacement of people due to the attacks.

There have been 6,294 young people conscripted out of an expected 14,952 with only two weeks left for the end of the conscription process that started on 4 January 2021.

Foncina Búfalo, provincial delegate for the military recruitment and mobilisation centre, said that it was related to people abandoning their homes in the districts of Mocímboa da Praia, Muidumbe, Quissanga and Macomia, and the delay in resuming classes, as many young people were found by the military in schools.

Búfalo said that registration brigades had been sent to the accommodation centres for refugees, but even so there were difficulties in registering young people, because they said they had lost their documents when fleeing from terrorists, and the system did not allow registration without ID. She added that school classes will resume in March, but military conscription was ending at the end of this month.