SAMIM leaving Mozambique for lack of funds

Maputo, 25 Mar (AIM) – The Southern African Development Community’s Military Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM), which has been assisting the Mozambican forces in their fight against islamist terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, will leave the country in July for lack of funds, according to Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo.

“SAMIM is facing some financial problems. We also have to take care of our own troops, and we would have difficulty paying for SAMIM”, she said. “Our countries are not managing to raise the necessary money”.

Macamo was speaking after a meeting in Lusaka between Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and his Zambian counterpart, Hakainde Hichilema, who is the current chairperson of the SADC body on Cooperation in Politics, Defence and Security.

SAMIM has been deployed in Mozambique since mid-2021. In August 2023, its mission was extended for a further 12 months, until July 2024. SAMIM’s plan is for a gradual withdrawal of the forces from the eight SADC members who comprise it.

Macamo told reporters that, given its budgetary limitations, SADC had opted to prioritise its mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) above SAMIM.

SADC, she said, believed that the situation is relatively stable when compared with the violence in the eastern DRC, where over 120 armed groups are fighting to loot the country’s natural resources.

“Africa has many problems and currently SADC has two missions, in the DRC and in Mozambique”, Macamo added. “And SADC thought that, for Mozambique, if other countries continue to support us with material, including lethal material, we can effectively overcome terrorism”.

(AIM)

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