Government plans to restrict use of drones

Maputo, 7 Mar (AIM) – The Mozambican government has submitted to the Assembly of the Republic (AR), the Mozambican Parliament, a bill on the use of aerial technological devices – especially drones – since the use of them has become commonplace, which, according to the military, is making the country vulnerable.

Speaking on Wednesday before the parliamentary committee on defence, security and public order, the Minister of Defence, Cristóvão Chume, said there is an urgent need to provide state institutions, especially those related to cartography, with the capacity to monitor and process information captured by aerial means.

“Today we are in a wilderness, where everything that concerns us is happening without regulation”, he claimed. “People are flying drones over the country’s capital in areas of military operations, over barracks. People are surveying the country’s geological information, information that has to do with the country’s fauna, that has to do with the quality of the water, the quality of the roads, the quality of everything we have. In general, they are surveying sensitive information using manned and unmanned aerial vehicles”.

Chume believes that legislation on the issue will prevent foreign institutions or other entities from jeopardizing the country’s security by collecting and disclosing confidential information.

“We have to invest so that the country may mobilize to manage all the information processing and the installation of a database”, he said, adding that the measure will also allow for greater control of terrorist movements, especially in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Chume said the bill will exclude people carrying out “aerial surveying or cinematography for leisure, entertainment or personal purposes, under the terms to be regulated”.

The bill is expected to be tabled during the current sitting of the Assembly, which began in the second half of February.

Drones used for military purposes can have a devastating effect, as shown in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But they have become valuable tools for civilian surveys, notably of wild life, in areas that are difficult to reach by conventional means.

(AIM)

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