Dialogue not military intervention will resolve Mozambique conflict: Prof Nuvunga

Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Professor Adriano Nuvunga says the conflict in Mozambique requires dialogue and not military intervention if it is to be solved.

Mozambique is engulfed in an armed conflict that has seen ISIS-related armed men unleashing a reign of terror in the Cabo Delgado region.

Thousands of people have reportedly been killed by the armed men while several others have fled the areas into neighboring countries.

This saw the SADC Troika on Defence and Security meeting to come up with recommendations on how the problem can be solved.

Some have suggested deploying military intervention into the troubled region; however, Professor Nuvunga thinks SADC countries have capacity challenges as they face similar challenges that led to the conflict in Mozambique.

Speaking in an interview on The Insight, Professor Nuvunga said “SADC can play a pivotal role as the platform for dialogue particularly in relation to Tanzania where Mozambique and Tanzania have a relationship in terms of boarders and migration. There are issues there and we think that SADC can be a platform for that dialogue.

“SADC is the most immediate multilateral organization of which Mozambique is a member state and can tap into the capacity of SADC. Capacity we don’t mean military capacity, the situation In Mozambique is not about militarization it’s about failure of governance. It is a failure of democracy.

“There are questions being asked such as, does SADC have that capacity to support Mozambique as some of SADC member states are facing similar challenges in terms of governance deficit, so how can they support Mozambique which is need of strengthening its governance mechanism to allow that the low hanging fruit associated with gas developments can quickly reach local populations.

“We are happy to see that SADC is gaining some teeth and seems to be moving, wanting Maputo onto the table of dialogue and to ask some sort of transparency and accountability and we hope to engage the technical deployment to advocate them to understand that Mozambique is facing a governance challenge and that it is through that length that have to organize SADC to meaningfully participate and influence events.

“Zimbabwe is Mozambique’s key partner and the comradeship between Mozambique and Zimbabwe is such that no solution for Mozambique problems can be designed without direct participation of Zimbabwe.

“Understanding the current challenges that Zimbabwe is facing we think, and we have seen important engagement from President Emmerson Mnangagwa so we would like to see Zimbabwe participating more and helping not only in the conflict in Northern Mozambique but also in the central part of the country.

“We think that Zimbabwe can participate but of course people are cautious about some of the challenges Zimbabwe is facing at home itself.