Calls for SA intervention as Isis gathers pace in Mozambique
It’s been suggested that SA may intervene militarily in the escalating insurgency in northern Mozambique. That’s not likely to happen any time soon, given the constraints facing SA’s forces
With its minority Islamic State (IS) influence, the rising home-grown insurgency in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado — gateway to exploratory offshore gas-fields — is raising eyebrows at Southern African Development Community (Sadc) level.On July 29, the journal Africa Intelligence reported that SA’s Brig-Gen Xolani Mankayi had ordered the soldiers of 43 SA Brigade to begin intensive training for possible action in Cabo Delgado — if President Cyril Ramaphosa orders as much.The brigade is the planning element of the rapid intervention component SA has pledged to Sadc’s standby force.But don’t expect the soldiers to be packing their kitbags just yet. The last time the brigade intervened in another country under Sadc auspices was in September 1998. Then called 43 Mechanised Brigade, it ran the field headquarters of Operation Boleas to put down a mutiny in Lesotho — and that took three months to plan.Also, the defence department’s annual performance plan for 2020 notes t...
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