Southern African leaders are in the process of putting together a reaction force that will tackle Islamic State militants in Mozambique where over 2,000 people have been killed and nearly 450,000 forced to flee their homes.
In a communique following an Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit in Botswana attended by presidents Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, a representative of the Mozambican president and members of the Force Intervention Brigade-Troop Contributing Countries (Malawi, Tanzania and South Africa), the SADC nations expressed concern over the situation in Mozambique.
“The Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit noted with concern, the acts of terrorism in the region, particularly in Cabo Delgado province of the Republic of Mozambique, and expressed continued SADC solidarity with Mozambique.”
They called for the urgent “finalization of a comprehensive regional response and support to the Republic of Mozambique to be considered urgently by the Summit.
“The Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit accepted the proposal by the United Nations to realign the current Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) troops strength to create the headroom for the Quick Reaction Forces (QRFs), and generate two QRFs from the SADC Troops Contributing Countries.”
Other leaders, who attended the summit, were President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of Malawi, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania, representing Tanzanian president John Pombe Joseph Magufuli.