SAMIM raid nets an insurgent, weapons and documents

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The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) is up and operational in northern Mozambique with a statement reporting a raid on an insurgent hideout and the death of two soldiers, neither in contacts.

The multi-national SAMIM, with military equipment and personnel at present from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Tanzania in its ranks, moved into the east African country starting late in June and through July. Also in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, where Ansar al-sunnah Islamist insurgents are based, is a thousand-strong contingent of Rwandan troops.

According to a SAMIN statement dated 2 September, the mission is conducting operations in its “designated area of responsibility” co-ordinating with FADM (the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces, in Portuguese “Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique”).

This saw SAMIM forces raid an insurgent hideout in the Muera area, south of Mbau late in August capturing an insurgent and “recovering items including vehicles, weapons and documents”. The captive was handed to FADM and documents “shared for intelligence exploitation”.

The statement, attributed to Major PK Mfaladi, goes on to report two deaths. One was an as yet unnamed Botswana soldier killed in a vehicle accident on 29 July and the other a Tanzania People’s Defence Force soldier who died “in an incident involving an aircraft” on 28 August.

In addition to putting a hold on insurgent activities, SAMIM is tasked with humanitarian support to the Mozambican government and humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), working in particularly the Cabo Delgado area where indications are more than 800 000 people are displaced in addition to thousands killed since 2019.