The European Union launched a military training mission in Mozambique on Wednesday (November 3) to help local troops fight the jihadist insurgency in its natural gas-rich northern region.
More than 3,100 African, European and American soldiers have been deployed to the southern African country’s Cabo Delgado province to quell the unrest.
Since 2017, militants associated with the Islamic State have been raging in the area, attacking villages and towns, killing at least 3,340 people and displacing more than 800,000 people.
The European Union (EU) dispatched 1,100 soldiers to the country in September and officially began their mission on Wednesday. These forces will be stationed in Mozambique for two years to train rapid intervention forces.
“This mission will help defend Mozambique,” Joaquim Mangrasse, the head of the Mozambican armed forces, told reporters in the capital, Maputo.
“After the training is over, we will develop an operational training plan for the future. Soldiers trained here will be able to perform their tasks,” he said.
The EU will also provide non-lethal weapons to the Mozambican army.
Militants in Cape Delgado attacked the important port city of Palma in March, causing dozens of deaths and thousands of people fleeing into the surrounding forest. This has aroused the attention of the international community.
The violence forced France’s TotalEnergies to declare force majeure and to evacuate employees from nearby multi-billion-dollar natural gas projects.
Rwanda was the first foreign army to send troops to Mozambique, deploying 1,000 troops in July. A few weeks later, members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) followed suit, which extended its mission last month.
South Africa has the largest task force of approximately 1,500 soldiers.
Earlier this year, the former colonists of Mozambique, Portugal and the United States, both sent special forces to train local troops.
