Hosia Mviringi
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Acting Chairman and Mozambican President Dr Filipe Nyusi will today undertake a 24 hour State visit to Zimbabwe at the invitation of his counterpart, President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The visit comes hot on the heels of a SADC Double Troika Summit which met in Maputo on May 27, 2021, to review the technical report of the SADC technical assessment team on Cabo Delgado.
A brief statement from the Office of the Mozambican leader reveals that “…the visit of the Head of State and Government to that country falls within the scope of regular consultations in the capacity of current SADC Chairperson, as well as in the deepening and strengthening of the bilateral relations” existing between the two countries.
Zimbabwe and Mozambique share a long emotional history since the days of the liberation struggle during which the latter, as a member of the frontline states played a pivotal role in Zimbabwe’s war against colonial oppression. Many sons and daughters perished in camps dotted around Mozambique as the country provided training ground for Zimbabwean combatants.
Zimbabwe then later reciprocated in a new fight for the peace of Mozambique when the country was under siege from the Renamo insurrection.
But today Mozambique finds itself overwhelmed by yet another deadly and more disruptive Islamic insurgency, which realistically threatens to spill into Zimbabwe and the region if left unchecked.
It is this reality that makes closer cooperation between the two countries and the wider regional block more important than at any point in the past.
Mozambique finds itself at the cusp of a major economic revolution with the current development of the world’s largest find of Oil and Liquid Natural Gas resources in recent times.
Mozambique’s national army cannot defeat the terrorists alone, thus the need for closer regional and bilateral security and defence cooperation.
The two countries share economic interests as Zimbabwe is heavily invested in the Beira Corridor as a shipping gateway into the landlocked Southern African country. An oil pipeline, the cheapest and most convenient conveyor of petroleum products, runs across Mozambique into Zimbabwe, making the case for Zimbabwean interests in Mozambican Peace and Security.
Zimbabwe, being the immediate past Chair of the SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, has a lot of insights to share with their Mozambican counterparts given the current security threat in the former Portuguese colony.
SADC has won the support of the African Union in its commitment to helping Mozambique to defeat the Cabo Delgado insurgency.
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