Sadc meets on security
The Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) will this Friday hold an Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit to discuss emerging peace and security issues in the region.
Other key highlights of the meeting include the bloc’s Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), Troop Contributing Countries as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Mozambique which face long-standing civil conflicts that have killed and displaced millions.
Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who is chairperson of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, called the meeting yesterday amid a growing Islamist jihadist threat in neighbouring Mozambique that puts all countries in the region at high risk of infiltration.
The Sadc Troika of the Organ includes Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe as the current, incoming and outgoing chairperson of the organ respectively, while Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania are FIB troop contributing countries under the United Nations’ Organisation Stabilisation Mission in DRC (Monusco).
The summit will be preceded by a ministerial level committee of the organ tomorrow.
The Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation’s objective is to promote peace and security in the region in line with Article 2 of the Sadc Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
At a previous Sadc Troika meeting earlier this year, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi urged fellow African leaders to support his government’s fight against terrorism, saying the war on terror requires concerted efforts.
“Terrorism, you can’t fight alone, this is the experience which we have. We need to share forces, not only in the region, but probably for Africa,” he said.
Eugenio Njoloma, a security studies lecturer at Mzuzu University’s Centre for Governance, Peace and Security Studies, earlier said if ignored, the terrorist nuclei could spill across the region and cripple its peace and stability.
“Spill over effects of the conflict in Mozambique will surely be gravely felt by Malawi in many respects, including disrupting trade activities between the two countries,” he said.
Mozambique’s media reports indicate that the jihadist attacks in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province—located a few hundred kilometres from Malawi—have killed over 2 000 people and displaced about 430 000 others.
