South Africa extended by three months to the end of April the deployment of its troops in northern Mozambique where they are involved in fighting an Islamic State-linked insurgency, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Friday.
The extension is expected to cost nearly R1 billion (about US$65 million) from January 16 to April 15, Ramaphosa said.
“This serves to inform the National Assembly that I have extended the employment of 1,495 members of the South African National Defence Force for a service in fulfilment of an international obligation of the Republic of South Africa towards the Southern African Development Community (SADC),” Ramaphosa said in a letter to the National Assembly.
South African soldiers were sent to Mozambique last July and were initially deployed for three months.
Ramaphosa extended their deployment by three months in October and this ended in January, according to the president.
The SANDF soldiers are part of the SADC Mission in Mozambique that is assisting that country’s security forces to fight an insurgency in the northern Cabo Delgado province where energy multinational companies have set up a multi-billion-dollar gas mining operation in the Indian Ocean.
NM/jn/APA