Mozambique: the Sadc regional force announces its withdrawal from the province of Cabo Delgado

On Mar 25, 2024

Southern African Development Community (SADC) troops, deployed in July 2021 to counter the Islamist insurgency in northern Mozambique, will leave the country due to financial difficulties. This was made known to the press by the Foreign Minister of Mozambique, Veronica Macamo, making it known that the bloc, evaluating its budget limits, believes that Mozambique is now relatively stable compared to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where since last December a Sadc mission has also been deployed to counter the insurgency of armed rebel groups in the province of North Kivu. The president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, confirmed the news, stating that the Sadc intends to withdraw its forces from Mozambique “by July”, however he said that this does not mean that the fight against jihadist groups will stop. “Countries have offered to work with us even bilaterally, if warranted,” Nyusi wrote in a Facebook post. “As Mozambicans we must be ready for this reality. Let’s not get distracted, the greatest responsibility lies with us,” he added.

For seven years an armed insurrection has afflicted the north of Mozambique, and in particular the province of Cabo Delgado, where the jihadist group known as the Islamic State of Central Africa Province (Iscap) has been active since 2017, responsible for several attacks against the civilian population and the Mozambican armed forces which provoked the intervention of the Sadc in July 2021. The first country to deploy its own contingent as part of the regional mission was Rwanda, which sent more than 2 thousand soldiers to Mozambique. In the province of Cabo Delgado, rich in natural gas resources, there is the 20 billion dollar Mozambique LNG Project, managed by the French TotalEnergies, which last December announced the imminent resumption of activities after the suspension decided following the resurgence of violence in 2021. The Ccsjv Joint Venture, formed by the Italian Saipem, the American McDermott International and the Japanese Chiyoda Corporation, also operates in the area, which in June 2019 was awarded the contract for the engineering, supplies and construction of the onshore LNG project in Mozambique for a total amount of 8 billion dollars, of which Saipem’s share is approximately 6 billion dollars.