Mozambique Insurgency: Is There An End In Sight?

Owen Kaura

Zimbabwe’s Acting Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Professor Amon Murwira, says although the insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Region is a cause for concern to regional security, Zimbabwe and SADC are considering various options to end the problem.

Professor Murwira told ZTN that the Zimbabwe consulate in Mozambique is ascertaining if any Zimbabweans have been affected.

 “We are still to confirm with our consular services in Mozambique, when we know you will be informed,” he said.

Last week, some South Africans were killed in the Palma region during an attack by insurgents with suspected links to the Islamic group Isis.

Professor Murwira’s comments follow desperate appeals by a Zimbabwean family, whose son Nyasha Mugwagwa aged 38, has been missing since the attacks in Palma recently.

Nyasha’s mother Joyce said, “It’s now two weeks and it’s so traumatizing. I am just appealing to anyone with information to assist so that I can get my son back safely.”

ZTN News spoke to International Relations Lecturer in the Department of Peace and Governance at the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) Dr Ronald Chipaike, who urged SADC to take an authoritative stance against the insurgents.

“SADC has to play a more proactive role. At the moment it appears like the summits that are taking place are not really giving a solution, there is a need to come up with a hybrid force, he said.”

ZTN’s Mozambique correspondent Horace Manuel Chamveca said, 

“As of today (Wednesday) more than 8 000 displaced people have been legally registered, people that had been in Palma at the time of conflict, the situation is not good in Palma.”

SADC regional leaders are expected to meet in Mozambique on Thursday to engage the country’s President Filipe Nyusi in the wake of the attacks.