By Paul Ejime

LEADERS of the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) have resolved to deploy a military force to help Mozambique contain the jihadist insurgency, which has caused more than 3,000 deaths and displaced almost one million in the country’s gas-rich Cabo Delgado province over the past four years.

At their just-ended summit in Maputo, the regional leaders mandated the SADC Standby Force Mission to support Mozambique to “combat terrorism and acts of violent extremism.”

Apart from troops’ deployment, an official also said, the SADC “will in collaboration with Humanitarian Agencies continue providing humanitarian support to those affected by the terrorist attacks.

The decisions will bring much comfort to beleaguered Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi. They also evoke the memory of how African countries rallied to tackle security problems in recent past, emulating the example of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which set up the ceasefire Monitoring Group, ECOMOG in 1990, to deal with the civil wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and conflicts in other member States.

In 2014, South Africa stopped an attempted coup in Lesotho!

The Maputo meeting was also attended by Botswana President Mokgweetsi Keabetswe Masisi, DR Congo President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, Lesotho Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro, Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

Another raging dangerous conflict that requires the urgent attention of African leaders and the international community is Ethiopia’s military operations in its northernmost region of Tigray.

The Ethiopian government has denied or restricted humanitarian and communication access to the region making it difficult if not impossible to determine the casualty figures and the extent of humanitarian devastation. There are allegations of war crimes ethnic cleansing and genocide, as the world watches, including the African Union with headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

The abiding lesson and lasting solution to the endless crises in Africa lie in nipping potential conflicts in the bud before their escalation.

Africa requires visionary leaders with strong political will and pro-people policies. Such leaders must deliver exemplary political and socio-economic governance systems and address issues related to discontentment, ethnicity, religious intolerance, cronyism, poverty, injustice, corruption, exclusion, high youth unemployment, criminality, and ensure respect for human rights, wellbeing and the protection of life and property.

– June 25, 2021 @ 09:38 GMT|