The South African military is reportedly preparing to give support to Mozambique as intelligence indicates that the Wallmannsthal military base has seen increased activity. The troops are reportedly readying themselves to offer support to their Mozambican counterparts upon communication between presidents Filipe Nyusi and Cyril Ramaphosa.
Despite there not being a formal request for assistance from the Mozambican side to the South African side, SA is becoming increasingly concerned about the developing Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado which has further been fuelled by direct threats against her by ISCAP. Thus, the training by the RIU unit is a preparatory move to aid their neighbors upon request to quash the terrorists. According to military sources, the increased activity at the military base began in early July after General Xolani Mankanyi ordered the soldiers from the 43 South African Brigade who form the rapid intervention unit of the SANDF to initiate an intensive training program.
Additionally, there is a huge intelligence deficient out of Mozambique which further widened by the global pandemic and as such creating the need for a standby ready unit to address any insurgency, lone-wolf attacks in SA as threatened by ISIS in newsletter publication earlier in the month.
Recently, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) members and especially South Africa have taken a keen interest in the security situation in the restive north as intelligence has revealed that the group has active members recruited from neighboring countries. South Africa has expressed a hastened need to send support to Mozambique to avoid a repeat of the spread of the Jihadist movement as seen in the Sahel, Maghreb, and the Lake Chad region where small groups expanded and became transnational terrorist organizations. Last month, Islamic State published an editorial on its al-Naba online bulletin in which it warned, in Arabic, that if South Africa intervened militarily in Cabo Delgado this ‘may result in prompting the soldiers of the Islamic State to open a fighting front inside its borders! – by the permission of God Almighty.’ The direct threat to South Africa ought to be taken seriously seeing as the group’s actual capability is elusive and unknown and triggering attacks within the region could heighten the threat and destabilize the region. Islamic State has sleeper cells in South Africa and has recruited South Africans into its ranks. Some of these extremists fought with the group in Syria, some are involved in Cabo Delgado, and others are lying low in various cities in the country.
