Mozambique: Police must reinvent itself to fight terrorism – President Nyusi

Mozambique: Police must reinvent itself to fight terrorism – President Nyusi Mozambican President Filipe on Monday (19) called on the Police force (PRM) to reinvent itself and repel any threats to public order and security, including terrorism attacks currently plaguing the residents of Cabo Delgado province, in the northern regof the country.

 Nyusi, who is also Commander-in-Chief of Forças de Defesa e Segurança (FDS), said that the mission of the police force also includes defence of the homeland, sovereignty and natural resources available in the country, as well as all achievements made with sacrifice and work of Mozambicans.

 He left the challenge during the closing ceremony of the 42nd PRM Basic course, at the Matalana Police Training School.

 In his view, the entry of a growing number of trained police officers Mozambicans into the ranks of the FDS is an important contribution by the Mozambican people to strengthen human capacity, allowing for wider coverage in the surveillance, vigilance and defence of country’s integrity. 

 “Therefore, we recommend the Police Force to reinvents itself so that, together with other defence and security forces on the ground intensify actions to repel any threats to public order and security, as well as build capacity to anticipate and contain any phenomena that could disturb the tranquillity of Mozambicans,” he said.

 The President also mentioned other threats facing the country, particularly money laundering and financing terrorism, and urged all justice stakeholders, including PRM and the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), to develop internal and external coordination mechanisms to combat this crime, which poses a major threat to the country and to the world in general. “This implies specialised training, increased capacity for investigation and analysis and responsibility for action,” he stressed. 

 Addressing the new graduates, Nyusi warned that the Oath of the Flag is not a mere procedure or a mere formality, but an act that carries in itself important significance of symbolism and a high sense of responsibility. “With the oath taken, each one of you has committed to respect and defend our multicoloured national flag and, above all, other values the honour and territorial integrity of the Mozambican nation and safeguard the sovereignty of the State regardless of the sacrifice that you may be required to,” he pointed out.

 He added that the life of a police officer finds its true meaning in the consent of individual sacrifices for the fulfilment of a set of patriotic duties for common good of Mozambicans and all. “Young men, to be a police officer is to accept to always serve national interests, to serve the Homeland and to be ready to exchange one’s life for it, if necessary,” he stressed. 

 Nyusi also reminded the new graduates that when performing their duties they should distance themselves from any criminal practices because they are contrary to their office as well as denounce, combat and repel all criminal actions to eradicate this evil from society, including the police force.

Attacks: Analysts advocate independent investigation into allegations of abuse

"We hope that the State will respond as soon as possible because there are conditions to appoint an independent, credible, serious and multi-stakeholder commission to verify what has happened and what is happening in Cabo Delgado", defended the director of the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), Mozambican civil society organization, Adriano Nuvunga.

 The European Commission found on Thursday “extremely shocking” the recent report by Amnesty International (AI) on human rights violations in northern Mozambique that the organization attributes to the Defense and Security Forces (SDS), calling for a “transparent investigation” and effective ”. The Government leaves the door open for inquiries, but has said that the videos on which the allegations are based are "propaganda" of the insurgents facing Mozambique. "The pressure is increasing, we hope and call on the State to respond positively and create conditions as soon as possible," said Nuvunga

. Speaking to the Moza Eye, the journalist and analyst Fernando Lima said that the Mozambican state "can only gain" from the investigation, as this will allow "the suspicions and pressure" of national and international organizations to be removed. “If the State wants to distance itself seriously and in practice, it must allow an investigation”, underlined Lima. Borges Nhamire, a researcher at the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), considers that the investigations carried out by the Government “do nothing”, recalling other cases that occurred in the country, and that, according to Nhamire, “had no results”

. “This country is full of investigations that have no results. To get concrete information out there has to be an independent investigation ”, he reiterated. For analysts, there is increasing evidence and reports of human rights violations resulting from the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado, calling for conditions to be created to clarify them “once and for all”. "The only way to clarify this is to pave the way for an independent investigation into this type of situation, to dispel all possible doubts", defended the president of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) of Mozambique, Luís Bitone. 

 Cabo Delgado is the northernmost coastal province of Mozambique, home of mega-projects for natural gas exploration and facing a humanitarian crisis with more than 1,000 dead and 250,000 internally displaced - the result of three years of armed conflict between Mozambican and rebel forces, whose attacks have already been claimed by the Islamic State 'jihadist' group, but whose origin remains unclear. AI and Human Rights Watch (HRW) are among the organizations that have called for an investigation into the acts captured on video that show alleged members of Mozambican forces torturing and even executing others on the war stage in Cabo Delgado. 

 The Mozambican government has already repudiated the images and declared itself open to investigating the circumstances, classifying the videos as propaganda for the "terrorist" forces that reach the northern province and use the FDS uniforms to record them. On Tuesday, the Mozambican Interior Minister, Amade Miquidade, said that the government suspects that there is a nucleus that produces disinformation to denigrate the SDS and said that an investigation is underway to find out "where is the nucleus for preparing these videos" .

Mozambique / Attacks: NGO considers security agreement with French Total to be discriminatory

 On August 24, Total announced a review of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Mozambican Government for the operation of a joint force for the security of the natural gas project of the Area 1 consortium in the Rovuma basin, northern Mozambique.

In an analysis of the agreement, CIP understands that the Mozambican executive and Total ignored the impact of the armed conflict elsewhere in the province of Cabo Delgado, by focusing geographically on the understanding in Area 1 - Afungi, district of Palma.

"As this is an important document that provides for measures in the face of the conflict in Cabo Delgado, with a view to protecting the investments made in that province and guaranteeing the benefits of the exploitation of resources in general, it would be expected that it would involve other companies that also operate in that part of the country ", defends the CIP.

On the other hand, the text continues, the districts and localities plagued by the action of armed groups are interconnected, a situation that requires greater coverage of security strategies in the face of armed violence.

"It is also important to emphasize that the memorandum of understanding [between Government and Total] will have a direct impact on the lives of local communities, the provincial business community, on the inspection capacity of the National Petroleum Institute [INP], of the National Institute of Mines [Inami] and in the lives of Mozambicans, in general ", observes the CIP.

The organization also points out that the agreement affects Mozambique's national sovereignty, because it dellegates national security matters to a company that pursues strictly private interests.

CIP emphasizes that the expenses resulting from the agreement must be regulated, taking into account that the costs will encumber the investments of the consortium project and lower the tax revenues of the Mozambican State.

"The fact that the memorandum of understanding is kept as a confidential document makes it even more difficult for the regulator to monitor recoverable costs," says the CIP analysis.

The organization considers Total's concerns about the security of its enterprise in the Rovuma basin understandable in the face of armed attacks in the region, but stresses that any initiative in this area must be "comprehensive".

In this sense, he continues, the approach to security must deserve greater coordination between state institutions and companies in the extractive sector, namely in the response through "joint force".Following the agreement in August, in clarifications to Lusa, the French oil company said that "the revision of the safety memorandum reflects the increase in activities during the construction phase and the mobilization of a larger workforce".

The province of Cabo Delgado has been the scene of armed attacks for three years by forces classified as terrorists.

The violence caused a humanitarian crisis with more than a thousand deaths and about 365,000 internally displaced persons.