Algeria pledges support for fight against terrorism

Maputo, 4 Mar (AIM) – The Algerian government has pledged that it will support the Mozambican defence and security forces in the fight against islamist terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, summarizing his four day working visit to Algeria, told reporters on Sunday that the Algerian authorities have promised to support the Mozambican forces with training equipment.

“This is going to happen”, he said. “We can speak of forms of equipping, exchanges of information etc. This was a conclusion that was taken immediately. To this end, we are going to conclude the instrument that will guide cooperation in defence and security”.

While work on this guiding document is being concluded, Nyusi added, the Algerian government has promised immediate support in individual equipment for members of the local militias who are fighting the terrorists alongside the armed forces.

“We hope that, within a short time this equipment will arrive”, he said. The Mozambican delegation had told the Algerians that the local militias in Cabo Delgado include veterans from the Mozambican independence war, who had received their own training in Algeria, in the 1960s. But these local forces are hampered by a severe shortage of basic equipment, including boots and raincoats.

As for the fight against crime, Nyusi said Algeria will help train police cadres in the battle against kidnapping gangs in the major cities.

The President also announced that Algeria will finance the construction of a national pantheon in homage to the heroes of the Mozambican independence struggle. It will built on the grounds of the former arsenal in the Maputo neighbourhood of Malhazine.

Nyusi recalled that the current Heroes’ Square in Maputo had originally been intended as transitional. But this transition had lasted for 48 years. Heroes’ Square, he added, “is in a position where I do not think souls can rest in peace, since cars are always driving past”.

Nyusi announced that the two governments have decided to reactivate the Mozambique-Algeria Joint Commission, and the Economic Forum between the two countries.

The Joint Commission, he said, “is the umbrella that will allow the discussion of everything, and the coordination of all the working instruments”.

During Nyusi’s visit, Mozambique and Algeria signed agreements on waiving entry visas for holders of diplomatic and service passports, on cooperation in energy, and on veterinary services and plant quarantine and protection
(AIM)
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