It’s not only South Africa as an immediate neighbour keeping a weather eye on Mozambique where post-election protests and violence are ongoing.
The European Union (EU) – with an 80 personnel strong military assistance mission (MAM) and the United States (US) by way of its embassy in the Southern African country – are also keeping a close watch on the situation. Another indicator was a brief visit to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (KMIA), 85 nautical miles from Maputo International Airport (MPM/FQMA), by a US Air Force (USAF) C-17 Globemaster III last week, reportedly part of US over-watch.
The airlifter, reports have it, flew with a special mission call sign, not the call sign used by the USAF for its embassy support flights to Africa.
A demonstration alert issued by the US Embassy in Mozambique has it “protests, roadblocks, looting and civil unrest related to national election results are expected to continue throughout the holiday season, beginning 17 December”.
“Police regularly fire tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition to disperse crowds,” the alert notes, continuing, “many protest events have seen large groups blocking roads and stopping vehicle traffic”.
“Cars have been attacked and vehicle occupants forced to pay sums of money to continue safely or forced to turn around. In addition, there have been temporary closures of major roads and toll gates across Mozambique. Entry and exit to Maputo International Airport and regional airports may be temporarily blocked due to protests and physical barriers. Land border crossings to neighbouring South Africa and Eswatini have been similarly blocked and these may happen at border crossings with Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania. Closures are likely to be sporadic and last several hours.”
In response to a defenceWeb inquiry an EU spokesperson said: “In the light of current events, a significant part of EUMAM training activities have been adapted”.
“Advisory and mentor teams are not in field and are preparing the staff officers’ course for the administrative command element. Similarly, future activities are being prepared by EUMAM legal, cultural and gender advisors.
“The work of EUMAM continues and the mission has taken additional security measures and conducts regular meetings with FADM (Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique),” defenceWeb was told with the rider that the mission’s mandate is to help the Mozambican armed forces in the fight against terrorists in Cabo Delgado.
“The mission has no role in other events taking place in the country.”
A South African government delegation led by International Relations and Co-operation Minister Ronald Lamola yesterday (Wednesday, 18 December) used the eastern Mpumalanga town Malelane as the venue for bilateral talks with Mozambican government representatives. The South African delegation included representatives from the departments of Defence and Military Veterans; Home Affairs, and Trade, Industry and Competition as well as the Border Management Authority (BMA), SA Police Service (SAPS) and SA Revenue Service (SARS).
Government news agency SANews, quoting a statement issued after the Malelane briefing has it, among others, there would be “frequent and continuous engagements at diplomatic and bilateral levels to mitigate disruptions to trade and supply chains”. Lamola and his Mozambican counterpart Pascoal Ronda further committed to identifying alternative routes and deploy additional resources to expedite and facilitate trade to limit “disruptions”.
