Angola helping to transport regional military mission in Mozambique.

By Jorge Joaquim

Angola is playing an important role in transporting troops and equipment for the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s military mission to fight terrorism in northern Mozambique.

An Angolan military transport plane is to transport soldiers from Lesotho to Cabo Delgado province, and an Angolan plane of the same model has already been seen transporting equipment from Botswana, and at the South African military airfield at Waterkloof in Pretoria at the weekend.

The Angolan operation in Mozambique involves 20 military personnel and one aircraft, with an initial budget of $575,000.

State-owned airport operator Aeroportos de Moçambique (ADM) says that it has no forecast for when it can restart operations at Mocímboa da Praia airfield, after the town was recaptured from insurgents a week ago by Mozambican and Rwandan joint forces.

ADM still needs to go to the site to assess the damage: “The photos we received show that externally everything is fine, but there may be damage inside”, ADM chairman Emanuel Chaves said.