SADC prepares to intervene in Mozambique

SADC leaders who met in Maputo last week have called for a ‘proportionate regional response’ which could include military intervention to address the Cabo Delgado insurgency. Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the summit had agreed that the SADC standby force ‘should be resuscitated and capacitated immediately so that it can intervene’. The Daily Maverick reports that Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has so far resisted appeals by SADC to allow it to intervene to prevent the three-year-old insurgency in northern Mozambique from spilling over its borders. However, he offered no objection at the meeting. The summit communique 'noted with concern, the acts of terrorism perpetrated against innocent civilians, women and children in some of the districts of Cabo Delgado Province of Mozambique; condemned the terrorist attacks in strongest terms; and affirmed that such heinous attacks cannot be allowed to continue without a proportionate regional response'.