Mosambik

The insurgency in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province is surging and spreading to neighboring regions, according to a new study. This comes despite the intervention of SADC and Rwandan troops.

South Africa is sending fresh troops and armored vehicles to Mozambique's northern Cabo Delgado province as part of efforts to fight Islamic State-connected insurgents. The deployment is part of the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) military intervention, which started in July last year.

Rwandan and southern African troops have helped authorities fight an Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost province. The threat is greatly lowered but not yet gone. Maputo will need more military assistance as well as a nudge to address the conflict’s political roots.

The Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS) say they have arrested a senior leader of Al-Shabab, the terror gang that is responsible for the insurgency in the country’s Cabo Delgado province.

[…] The countries from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Malawi's capital Lilongwe where they agreed to extend the intervention for an unspecified period to fight the Islamic State-linked insurgents.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will Friday hold a virtual Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government to review progress and mandate of the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), the regional bloc said in a statement Tuesday.

Mozambique on Thursday launched a special force of elite soldiers and police to combat an Islamist uprising that has threatened the country’s lucrative natural gas projects. The announcement came as President Filipe Nyusi appointed new ministers of defense and interior, signaling a further toughening of the government’s crackdown in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

The European Union on Wednesday (3 November) launched a military training mission in Mozambique to help local troops fight a jihadist insurgency in its gas-rich north. More than 3,100 African, European and US soldiers have already been deployed to the southern African country’s Cabo Delgado province to quell unrest.

A visit by the executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Elias Magosi to troubled Mozambique, where the regional bloc has deployed a multi-national force (SADC Mission in Mozambique - SAMIM), serves as another indicator of the importance attached regionally to restoring peace and stability in the east African country.

On 23 June 2021, the Extraordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government approved the deployment of the SADC Mission to Mozambique (SAMIM). This post briefly examines two aspects. The first is SAMIM’s legal basis under international law on the use of force. The second is whether and to what extent the African Union (AU) and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should legally be involved.