Maputo — Mozambique has legalized the creation of local militias under the military to help fight Islamist militants in the northern Cabo Delgado province. A decree was approved and announced on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting in Maputo later that day. The government had secured parliamentary approval for the move in November, after the Defense Ministry admitted that the Mozambican army could not handle the militants alone.
The self‑defence local militias already assist the Mozambican armed forces and military contingents from Rwanda and several Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries in the fight in oil‑rich Cabo Delgado. Cabinet spokesman Filimao Suazi said the local militia force will be formalised to strengthen the role of defence and security forces in countering and containing militant Islamist incursions, protecting community settlements and public and private infrastructure. He added that the decree will allow for better structuring, organisation and logistical support for the self‑defence militias.
Suazi explained that the decree establishes the local force and its statute, defining the concept of the force, its activation and deactivation, composition, forms of acquisition, and the rights and duties of its members. The force is mainly composed of ex‑combatants and civilians who, since 2020, have supported the fight in Cabo Delgado.
In five years, the conflict in Cabo Delgado has caused close to 5,000 deaths, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, which specialises in disaggregated conflict data collection, analysis and crisis mapping. It has also displaced more than 1 million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Mozambique has been fighting militants linked to the Islamic State group in Cabo Delgado since 2017.
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