The EU could contribute funds for peacekeeping efforts in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province after its sixth summit with the AU this week.
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government took over its six-month presidency of the Council of the EU in January, at the opening of the AU-EU summit on Thursday indicated that the EU would support this intervention.
Macron praised Rwanda’s efforts along with the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to “find an unprecedented solution for Mozambique”, and said the UN should be persuaded to provide support.
Security concerns look set to dominate the two-day summit after Macron earlier in the day announced the withdrawal of France’s contingent of 2,400 troops and a smaller European force from Mali, following deteriorating relations with that country’s new military leaders.
Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Sudan were not invited to the summit as they have been suspended from the AU after unconstitutional changes in their governments.
France’s announcement followed a meeting in Paris on Wednesday between Macron and his African and European allies ahead of the summit. Macron said Europe has also faced destabilisation as a result of terrorism. France and neighbouring countries have suffered a number of deadly attacks in recent years.
Groups such as Daesh and Al-Qaeda have made headway in the Sahel and Southern Africa, “prospering as a result of poverty and opportunities they draw from this crisis”, he said.
The EU has already indicated this week that it will help fund efforts by the Rwandan defence force to help contain the insurgency in northern Mozambique, while there is also talk that the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) could receive funds from the EU through the European peace facility.
An EU official earlier this week said the EU was mindful of the AU’s preference of “African solutions for African problems”, something which was expressed at an Sadc summit in Malawi in January by President Cyril Ramaphosa, chair of the Sadc organ on politics, defence and security co-operation.
The SAMIM deployment was extended for another six months, but some member countries, including Lesotho have indicated that they are unable to fund their contingents any longer.
Even though there have been reservations in some Sadc countries about the involvement of Rwanda in Mozambique, and there are questions about the lack of co-ordination between SAMIM and the Rwandan defence force on the ground, Macron’s praise for the joint efforts echo that of the AU’s peace and security council earlier this month.
In addition to pledging additional resources from the continental logistics base in Cameroon, and equipment donated by China, the peace and security council appealed for support from the EU and the UNs.
The deployments to Mozambique happened more than six months ago. This was the first time since the start of the insurgency in 2017 that the situation was discussed at the AU.
International relations minister Naledi Pandor said in an interview on the sidelines of the AU summit in Addis Ababa earlier in February that she had asked for the peace and security council’s attention in October 2021. But due to the election of a new commissioner, Bankole Adeoye, and structural changes to the commission, the crisis was only discussed in February.
Apart from his efforts to secure funding for peacekeeping in Mozambique, Ramaphosa, as AU champion on Covid-19, is due to chair a roundtable discussion on Friday morning on health systems and vaccine production. He is expected to criticise the EU’s refusal to budge on the issue of intellectual property rights that will enable developing countries to manufacture their own vaccines.
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