SADC Holds Off on Military Action in Mozambique – Here’s Why

South Africa is pressing for urgent military action by SADC to quell an insurgency in Mozambique threatening to destabilize neighbouring countries, the country’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, is reported to have said ahead of a summit of SADC’s 16 member states.

But not everyone thinks that’s the best of ideas to stabilise the southern African country. The Tanzania government has, instead, emphasised the need for talks as a means of promoting peace in Mozambique, calling on the international community to help the country by sending development aid.

SADC leaders have been discussing how to tackle the insurgency by militants in Cabo Delgado, with an option for force, but this is the first time South Africa has explicitly thrown its weight behind the idea of a military intervention. The militants have stepped up violence in the past year with more sophisticated attacks, delaying construction of a new U.S.$20 billion liquefied natural gas project run by French oil major, Total that declared a force majeure on the new build.