701122E TERRORIST UNITS MUST NEVER BE SUPERIOR TO OUR FORCES – NYUSI

701122E TERRORIST UNITS MUST NEVER BE SUPERIOR TO OUR FORCES – NYUSI

Maputo, 21 Nov (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi warned on Monday that terrorist units must never be superior to the country’s own defence and security forces.

To this end, he said, speaking in Maputo at the opening of a meeting of the Coordinating Council of the Defence Ministry, a mechanism must be adopted that strengthens the operational capacity of the armed forces, through the training of their commanders, and Special Forces, and strengthening the troops performing against the enemy in the Operational Theatre.

Speaking on the theme “Defence Sector Committed in Preventing and Combatting any Forms of Aggression against the Motherland”, Nyusi said “the terrorist units must never be superior to our own forces. In time of war, the commander must have his operational base in the Operational Theatre, as our experience of the past teaches us. In the fight against terrorism, orders must be obeyed without question. And nobody is safe until the entire Mozambican people are safe”.

Terrorism in Mozambique, he added, is creating conditions for other crimes, such as trafficking in drugs, weapons and human body parts. These crimes could generate resources for financing terrorism.

In itself, terrorism created an environment of chaos, which was favourable to crime. “Faced with this reality”, said Nyusi, “it is urgent to combat in an organized, programmed and determined way these phenomena. Otherwise, we put at risk the bright destination that we want, which is to build a prosperous future for our people”.

The terrorism in Cabo Delgado province, which has recently spilled over the provincial boundaries into Niassa and Nampula, should be a concern for the whole country, he said, and particularly for the armed forces (FADM).

This threat required maximum attention, Nyusi insisted, and the Coordinating Council was an ideal opportunity to define strategies adjusted to the current dynamics.

Some threats arose from “internal dynamics”, and so he called for grater scrutiny of the people recruited into the FADM and into the Mozambican Civic Service. “The FADM and the Civic Service cannot accommodate individuals with foreign agendas”, said Nyusi. “Recruitment must not be characterized by corruption, so that we avoid including enemy agents in our forces”.
(AIM)
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