JOHANNESBURG - A top U.S. counterterrorism official has expressed concern about the deteriorating situation in Mozambique, where an Islamic State-affiliated terror group has captured territory in the country’s northeast since appearing three years ago.
The group’s actions have led to the displacement of more than 400,000 people and the deaths of more than 2,000 in the Cabo Delgado region. The conflict has recently spread to neighboring Tanzania, raising the potential of destabilizing part of southern Africa and boosting a group with declared ties to the Islamic State.
Ambassador-at-Large Nathan Sales, the U.S. coordinator for counterterrorism, recently visited Mozambique and South Africa to see how the United States can help “contain, degrade and defeat” the growing movement. With a situation this complicated, he said, a military solution is not enough. He spoke to reporters via teleconference from Washington on Tuesday.
Sales was vague about the outlines of the U.S. plan.
“What we need to do is make sure that we in the United States are making available to our Mozambican partners every capability that we have to help them degrade and ultimately defeat that terrorist threat,” he said. “Once we have reached an agreement on what our partnership could look like the precise contours of what that partnership could look like, I’m sure we’ll be in a position to share more information about what that will look like.”
The U.S. is not the only outside party trying to intervene. This week, Pope Francis donated $121,000 to support victims of militant attacks in Cabo Delgado. Those funds will be used to build health facilities for the displaced.
And, Vines noted, mercenaries with the shadowy Wagner Group arrived in Mozambique in late 2019 to help Mozambican security forces. Top U.S. military officials have echoed analysts who believe the Wagner Group is closely connected to the Kremlin, a charge Russian officials have denied.
The group’s actions have led to the displacement of more than 400,000 people and the deaths of more than 2,000 in the Cabo Delgado region. The conflict has recently spread to neighboring Tanzania, raising the potential of destabilizing part of southern Africa and boosting a group with declared ties to the Islamic State.
Ambassador-at-Large Nathan Sales, the U.S. coordinator for counterterrorism, recently visited Mozambique and South Africa to see how the United States can help “contain, degrade and defeat” the growing movement. With a situation this complicated, he said, a military solution is not enough. He spoke to reporters via teleconference from Washington on Tuesday.
Sales was vague about the outlines of the U.S. plan.
“What we need to do is make sure that we in the United States are making available to our Mozambican partners every capability that we have to help them degrade and ultimately defeat that terrorist threat,” he said. “Once we have reached an agreement on what our partnership could look like the precise contours of what that partnership could look like, I’m sure we’ll be in a position to share more information about what that will look like.”
The U.S. is not the only outside party trying to intervene. This week, Pope Francis donated $121,000 to support victims of militant attacks in Cabo Delgado. Those funds will be used to build health facilities for the displaced.
And, Vines noted, mercenaries with the shadowy Wagner Group arrived in Mozambique in late 2019 to help Mozambican security forces. Top U.S. military officials have echoed analysts who believe the Wagner Group is closely connected to the Kremlin, a charge Russian officials have denied.
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