The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has agreed to deploy its Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) to assist Mozambique fend off attacks by Islamic State-linked insurgents who are wrecking havoc in the north of the country.
In a communique issued at the end of an extraordinary summit of its double troika on Thursday evening, SADC expressed “full solidarity” with the government of Mozambique and reaffirmed its “commitment to contribute towards the efforts to bring about lasting peace and security, as well as reconciliation and development” in Mozambique.
“Double Troika Summit directed an immediate SADC Organ technical deployment to the Republic of Mozambique, and the convening of an extraordinary meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Organ by 28 April 2021 that will report to the Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit to be held in the Republic of Mozambique on 29 April 2021,” the communique said.
The regional body mandated defence and security chiefs from its 16 member states to work on the modalities of activating the FIB.
Mozambique will become the second SADC country in which the FIB has been deployed after the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The deployment comes in the wake of a recent surge in attacks on civilians and government installations by insurgents known locally as Al-Shabab although there is no link with the Somalian outfit that is aligned to Al-Qaeda.
JN/APA