Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi launched the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province.
Preliminary information revealed that SADC military intervention in CD will kick off with a contingent of 738 men and 19 experts. Neighbors Tanzania will have the largest number of elements 277, of the combat personnel, administrative personnel, and experts. In the first phase;
- South Africa will begin its intervention with a 270-man contingent that consists of land, naval, and air forces.
- Angola will have 16 men, who will be responsible for air transport, command, and air control.
- Botswana will have 108 personnel, which integrate land, air, air intelligence, logistics, and engineering and communications forces.
- Tanzania will contribute 274 elements for the field, integrating land and naval forces, the field hospital, and administrative personnel.
- Lesotho with only contribute to the ground force and will constitute 70 troops.
- The coordination mechanism will be comprised of 19 experts with 6 Mozambicans, 3 Tanzanians, 2 Angolans, 2 Botswanan, 1 Lesothian, 1 Malawian, 2 South Africans, 1 Zimbabwean, and 1 from the SADC Secretariat.
The mission was approved in Maputo on June 23, during the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the region, and has the mission of eradicating terrorism in the province of Cabo Delgado. The militants have killed at least 2500 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents of the northern province.
The launch followed a successful weekend where the Mozambican forces, backed by Rwandan troops, announced that they had driven out militants occupying Mocimboa da Praia, a port from where the first Islamist attacks were staged in October 2017 and has served as the de-facto headquarters of the Islamic State-linked extremists, since August 2020.
The actors in SAMIM have vowed to work and coordinate seamlessly in ensuring that gains against the militancy are permanent and sustainable to ensure that the group doesn’t spread across the region and jeopardize the regional security as ISWAP has done in the Lake Chad Basin region. The gains made by the Rwandan Forces in the past week is evidence that collaboration with allies will help in the fight against ISCAP and while a military intervention cannot be successful independently, it will complement socio-economic and political solutions that might be employed by the Mozambican government.
