The European Union has accepted Mozambique’s request for support to deal with an armed insurgency in the north of the country.
EU ambassador to Maputo, Antonio Sánchez-Benedito Gaspar said Brussels has responded positively to Maputo’s request last month for help in training its armed forces to battle the armed groups that have wreaked havoc in the oil-rich Cabo Delgado province since 2017.
“I can confirm that the requests that have been made to the EU have received a positive response and now we have to work on the different issues that have been raised,” Gaspar told journalists after meeting Mozambican Foreign Minister Veronica Dlhovo on Friday.
Dlhovo had written to the EU in late September seeking assistance with fending off attacks by the jihadist group commonly known as Al-Shabaab by locals.
The southern African nation has been fighting the insurgents for three years with little success.
At least 1,500 people have been killed and an estimated 250,000 have fled their homes.
JN/APA