SADC extends until August the military mission deployed in Mozambique to support the anti-jihadist fight

July 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has approved extending until August the military mission deployed in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado (north) to support the efforts of the Mozambican authorities in the fight against jihadism.

The mandate of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for the Operations of the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) ended this Friday, although the regional body has opted for a one-month extension due to the continued existence of the threat.

“Given that next month there will be a SADC summit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the SADC ‘troika’ has decided that it was time to take a decision on behalf of the summit… that SAMIM continues to operate within the SADC legal framework,” Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera said.

“As a single family, we have made the decision to extend our mission in Mozambique to continue maintaining the progress made by this mission,” said the president, who is also the rotating president of SADC, according to the Mozambican daily ‘O Country’.

The Mozambican Presidency has also pointed out that the extension has been approved “on a provisional basis” to “make possible the continuation of operations”, in view of the next SADC summit, which will take place on August 17 and 18 in DRC , according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Cabo Delgado has been the scene since October 2017 of attacks by Islamist militiamen known as Al Shabaab, unrelated to the homonymous group that operates in Somalia and maintains ties with Al Qaeda. Since mid-2019 they have been mostly claimed by the Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), which has intensified its actions since March 2020.