Rwandan forces recapture Mocimboa da Praia, Mozambique from jihadists

Rwandan soldiers from the Rwandan Defense Forces (FDR) of the military mission in Mozambique, while boarding at Kanombe airport, Kigali, Rwanda, July 10, 2021. AFP - SIMON WOHLFAHRT

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In Mozambique, the Rwandan army announced, in the afternoon of this Sunday, August 8, on Twitter, to have taken over, alongside the Mozambican forces, the strategic city of Mocimboa da Praia in the hands of the jihadists.

For several weeks, a thousand Rwandans have in fact been deployed in the Cabo Delgado region to help Maputo stop the rise of these insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State.

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Mocimboa da Praia is a strategic city, because it is a port city, located on the Indian Ocean, and which had therefore become an important source of supply for the insurgents. It was even one of their main strongholds for two years. Mocimboa da Praia was also, until now, the declared objective of the Rwandan army which communicates a lot on its operations in Mozambique and which had announced the encirclement of the city then an imminent final assault, in cooperation with the Mozambican forces.

The Rwandans, who present their deployment as a success, also announced a few days ago that they had participated in the takeover of another agglomeration, that of

Afungi, which is home to the French gas megaproject Total,

a 17 billion project. euros which was interrupted after the terrorist attack on the city of Palma last March.

Rwandan forces are not the only ones on Mozambican soil.

Botswana has already sent troops and South Africa has announced the dispatch of 1,500 troops to help end the attacks by the jihadists in Cabo Delgado which have left more than 3,000 dead according to NGOs and forced more than 800 000 people to flee, according to the Mozambican authorities. 

PHOTOS pic.twitter.com/dSvgoFHIKs

- Rwanda Defense Force (@RwandaMoD) August 8, 2021

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  • Rwanda

  • Mozambique

  • Terrorism