KIGALI: Rwanda said on Friday it will send 1,000 troops to Mozambique to help the country battle extremist militants wreaking havoc in the north of the gas-rich nation.
The planned deployment comes on the heels of a similar decision last month by the 16 nations in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc.
Analysts warned however that such multiple missions could further militarise the impoverished Cabo Delgado province, which has been terrorized by Daesh-linked extremists since late 2017.
“The government of Rwanda, at the request of the government of Mozambique, will today start the deployment of a 1,000-person contingent of the Rwanda Defense Force and the Rwanda National Police to Cabo Delgado Province,” Kigali said in a statement.
The forces will “support efforts to restore Mozambican state authority by conducting combat and security operations, as well as stabilization and security-sector reform,” it added.
The Rwandan contingent will work with the Mozambique Armed Defense Forces and those from SADC “in designated sectors of responsibility.”
There was no immediate reaction to the announcement from the government in Maputo, whose President Filipe Nyusi vowed last month to root out the militants with the help of regional allies.
Attacks have escalated in northern Mozambique over the past year, fueling fears the violence could spill over into neighboring countries.
The insurgency has claimed more than 2,900 lives, according to conflict data tracker ACLED, and displaced around 800,000 people, according to the United Nations.
But Adriano Nuvunga, head of Mozambique’s Center for Democracy and Development in Maputo, voiced concern at the Rwandan deployment.
“We see this as a not good move because it will further militarise northern Cabo Delgado and it can lead deep into the conflict moving in the wrong direction.”
Rwanda is already a major contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic and last year sent hundreds of troops to the unstable country after an attempted coup.
Nyusi, himself a former defense minister, had long shied away from asking for foreign military intervention to fight the extremists, instead relying on private military companies.
But last month he vowed to crush the militants with the help of SADC and “friendly countries.”
Alexandre Raymakers, Africa Analyst at UK-based global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, said he believes the Rwandan contingent could be used to secure key LNG sites in an effort to lure back international investors.
“The Rwandan security forces have developed a reputation for being a highly capable fighting force,” he said.
But, he added, “the presence of multiple military missions, in the form of a potential Rwandan contingent and the SADC, will likely lead to conflicting priorities and friction at the military command level, hindering the overall.”
Rwanda sends 1,000 troops to insurgency-hit Mozambique
https://arab.news/5xdzc
Rwanda sends 1,000 troops to insurgency-hit Mozambique
- Attacks have escalated in northern Mozambique, fueling fears the violence could spill over into neighboring countries
- Rwanda is already a major contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic
Britain, Japan agree to deepen defense and security cooperation
- “We set out a clear priority to build an even deeper partnership in the years to come,” Starmer said
- Takaichi said they agreed to hold a meeting of British and Japanese foreign and defense ministers this year
TOKYO: Britain and Japan agreed to strengthen defense and economic ties, visiting Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday, after his bid to forge closer links with China drew warnings from US President Donald Trump.
Starmer noted that Japan and Britain were the leading economies in a trans-Pacific that includes fellow G7 member Canada, as well as other international trade and defense pacts.
“We set out a clear priority to build an even deeper partnership in the years to come,” Starmer said as he stood beside Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after a bilateral meeting in Tokyo.
“That includes working together to strengthen our collective security, across the Euro-Atlantic and in the Indo-Pacific.”
Takaichi said they agreed to hold a meeting of British and Japanese foreign and defense ministers this year.
She said she also wanted to discuss “cooperation toward realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, the Middle East situation and Ukraine situation” at a dinner with Starmer later on Saturday.
Starmer arrived on a one-day Tokyo stop after a four-day visit in China, where he followed in the footsteps of other Western leaders looking to counter an increasingly volatile United States.
Leaders from France, Canada and Finland have all traveled to Beijing in recent weeks, recoiling from Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and tariff threats against NATO allies.
Trump warned on Thursday it was “very dangerous” for its close ally Britain to be dealing with China, although Starmer brushed off those comments.
Tokyo’s ties with Beijing have deteriorated since Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily during a potential attack on Taiwan.
China regards the self-ruled democratic island as its territory.
Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang on Thursday, with both sides highlighting the need for closer ties.
He also signed a series of agreements there, with Downing Street announcing Beijing had agreed to visa-free travel for British citizens visiting China for under 30 days.
No start date for that arrangement has been given yet.
Takaich said the two leaders agreed during discussions on economic security that a strengthening of supply chains “including important minerals is urgently needed.”
There is concern that Beijing could choke off exports of the rare earths crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
China, the world’s leading producer of such minerals, announced new export controls in October on rare earths and associated technologies.
They have also been a major sticking point in trade negotiations between China and the United States.
Britain, Japan and Italy are also developing a new fighter jet after Tokyo relied for decades on the United States for military hardware.
