Mnangagwa promises “regional response” to Cabo Delgado

By Jorge Joaquim

Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has promised a “robust regional response” to the insurgency in northern Mozambique.

“An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. United we stand. Hence, we cannot sit back and allow acts of insurgency to continue without a robust regional response,” Mnangagwa told a meeting of ruling party Zanu-PF’s Politburo.

He attended last week’s meeting of the Southern African Development Community which resolved to send a technical team to Mozambique to assess the situation. A Zimbabwean, Nyasha Mugwagwa, was among the 12 people killed by terrorists after they attacked the town of Palma last month.

Mnangagwa said that his government was working with Mozambique to establish how many Zimbabweans had been trapped by the attack on Palma. Meanwhile, the current president of the United Nations (UN)’s Security Council has described the situation in Mozambique as “very alarming”.

Dang Dinh Quy, Vietnam’s representative to the UN, said there was a risk of terrorism rapidly expanding to other parts of Africa, and that the UN was closely monitoring the situation.