EU member states endorse military training mission in Mozambique

The 27-member states of the European Union endorsed today, Wednesday, June 30, the concept of crisis management of the future European Union military training mission in Mozambique, taking the first step towards its formalization, diplomatic sources told Lusa.

At the last meeting of EU ambassadors under the Portuguese presidency – which ends today -, the permanent representatives of the member states endorsed the “Crisis Management Concept”, establishing the first step that will lead to the formalization of the approval of the mission by the EU Council.

According to diplomatic sources, the final approval of the military training mission should take place on July 12, during the Foreign Affairs Council, which brings together all the heads of European diplomacy.

In the concept approved today, the 27 member states foresee the possibility of launching a measure of assistance to the Armed Forces of Mozambique that includes the supply of “non-lethal equipment”, in order to “support the projection in Cabo Delgado” of the Mozambican army.

The mission will be headed by the Portuguese Army Brigadier General Nuno Lemos Pires and should have a duration of 28 months: four months for the establishment of the mission, to which two years are added.

In addition, the military training mission in Mozambique will be the first European mission under the Common Security and Defence Policy to be financed through the European Peace Support Mechanism, a financial instrument established in March and consisting of five billion euros, and which allows, for the first time, the European Union to supply military equipment to countries around the world.

The establishment of a military training mission in Mozambique had been identified by Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva as being “absolutely urgent” and “absolutely essential” for EU-Mozambique relations.

In that sense, in January, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, had traveled to Mozambique to meet the local authorities as the special envoy of the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borrell.

During the Foreign Affairs Council in April, the head of Portuguese diplomacy had stressed that, during his visit to Maputo, his Mozambican counterpart, Verónica Macamo, had told him that the country “was very interested” that reinforcement of ” peace and security component” in EU-Mozambique relations “to materialize through support, in addition to logistical, in military training and training”.

“Therefore, the presence of foreign troops in Mozambican territory was never in question, nor is it in question, for the purpose of combating the terrorist networks that unfortunately operate in Cabo Delgado. The possibility of materializing has always been, and is in question. this increase in cooperation in the area of ​​security through a non-executive mission directed at the training and military training of Mozambican special troops”, Santos Silva had underlined at the time.

Armed groups have terrorized Cabo Delgado since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State rebel group, in a wave of violence that has already caused more than 2,800 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict register project, and 732,000 displaced people, according to the UN.