Rwanda Defence Force Army Chief of Staff (ACOS), Lt Gen Mubarakh Muganga is on a 4-day visit to Rwandan Forces deployed in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.

Upon arrival at Mocimboa da Praia yesterday, the ACOS was welcomed by the Joint Force Commander, Maj Gen Innocent Kabandana who briefed him about the progress of military operations against terror groups in Cabo Delgado.

Lt Gen Muganga met Rwandan troops and commended them for the good work done since their arrival in Mozambique.

He further conveyed a message of appreciation from the RDF Commander-in-Chief, President Paul Kagame, for the security achievements gained since the Force’s arrival in Cabo Delgado.

The ACOS urged the Forces to keep the momentum and continue to be good ambassadors of Rwanda.

Rwandan troops in collaboration with Mozambican Forces fought and dislodged the terror groups from several towns including their main bases in MOCIMBOA DA PRAIA and other localities that include among others AWASSE, PALMA, QUIONGA, CHINDA, MBAU, MAPALANGANHA, TETE, NJAMA, QUELIMANE and most recently SIRI I and SIRI II considered to be their strongholds.

Rwanda’s surgical media machinery has dwarfed other media and government communictions of SADC member states in reporting about the ongoing war operations against terrorists in Cabo Delgado.

According to details on ground, Mozambicans are heavily relying on Rwandan press to get prompt updates on war in Cabo Delgado.

Analysts say lack of communication is a very worrying issue in Mozambique.

“The Mozambican Ministries of Interior and National Defense must quickly reflect on how Mozambique and the international community should know what is happening in Cabo Delgado, so that it is not just Rwandans who are talking about the fight against terrorism in that province,” argue analysts.

At the moment, what is known about the situation in the northern operational theatre is through the Rwandan press, and very little is heard from Mozambique, and for journalist Fernando Lima, this is due to the fact that “there is a very rusty communication system on the Mozambican side.”

Lima added that this is being reflected now, in Mozambique “in a situation where it has to be confronted with another communicational machine that works, completely, in different parameters”.

One-sided narrative

That analyst argued that the Ministries of Interior and National Defense “have to reflect on how they want Mozambicans and the international community to know what is happening in Cabo Delgado, otherwise, “we will only have a unilateral narrative by Rwanda with Mozambique in the wake of Rwandan communication.”

“The lack of communication is a very worrying issue in Mozambique; there has to be a deep reflection on this”, considers, in turn, the analyst Moisés Mabunda, recalling that the recent disagreement between Maputo and Pretoria over the participation of Rwanda in the conflict military in Cabo Delgado was due to lack of information.

Mabunda stressed that, due to a lack of information on the Mozambican side, one gets the impression that the Rwandans are alone in the front line.

However, Mozambican Defense Minister Jaime Neto recently said that Mozambicans are also on the front line.

“The forces of Rwanda and our forces have already engaged in combat several times, and we think the work they are doing is very good,” he said.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has decided to create a Regional Center for Combating Terrorism, which threatens to destabilize the entire region.

It is a regional unit that will be headquartered in Tanzania, with the mission of providing exclusive and strategic consulting services to the region in matters of terrorism threats.

The creation of this center was decided during the 41st Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of SADC, which took place on the 17th and 18th of August, in Lilongwe, Malawi, a country that assumed the rotating presidency of the organization.

Mozambique participated in the Summit with a delegation headed by the President Filipe Nyusi, who handed over the SADC presidency to the Malawian counterpart, Lazarus Chakwera.

On the occasion, Filipe Nyusi received congratulations from his counterparts for his exemplary leadership in the exercise of his mandate as president of SADC, a role for which he was bestowed upon in August 2020.

The final communiqué availed to press indicates that, even with regard to terrorism, the Summit received updated information on the security situation in the province of Cabo Delgado.

In this context, the session commended SADC Member States for providing military personnel and providing financial support for the deployment of the Standby Force to assist Mozambique in combating terrorism.

The same note indicates that the Summit approved the appointment of Elias Mpedi Magosi, from Botswana, to the post of Executive Secretary of SADC, replacing Stergomena Tax, who had been in office since September 2013.

Meanwhile, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, the next president of SADC, and the Namibian Hage G. Geingob, future president of the Organ of Cooperation for Politics, Defense and Security, were also elected.

The SADC Heads of State and Government also analyzed the reports on the general socio-economic status, regional food and nutrition security, gender and development, as well as the fight against HIV/Aids in the region.

In the same vein, the materialization of the motto of the 40th Summit was analyzed, in other words, “SADC – 40 years building peace and security and promoting development and resilience in the face of global challenges”.

The Summit reaffirmed the position that the creation of the Central Bank and the SADC Monetary Union is a long-term objective that must be based on the fulfillment of the necessary preconditions, namely the harmonization of fiscal and monetary policies of the countries of the region and greater convergence banking systems.

In view of the above, the African Monetary Institute and the African Central Bank should constitute long-term goals, the note indicates.

The summit of the regional bloc expressed concern and opposition to the unilateral decision taken by the African Union Commission to grant Israel observer status with the African Union (AU).