The Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Portuguese Embassy in Maputo and the Consulate in Beira have maintained “close contacts” with the Mozambican government, European partners and the UN on the conflict in Cabo Delgado.PSD wants external intervention with the involvement of Portugal
The Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs is being questioned this afternoon in Parliament, in the specialty committee, about Cabo Delgado. Augusto Santos Silva’s office responded to Plataforma’s questions about the situation in northern Mozambique, demonstrating that Portugal is already going beyond the natural concern with terrorist attacks and in contact with the government of Filipe Nyusi, the UN and European partners.
But the PSD goes even further and asks for a joint military intervention by a regional force, or even a UN intervention with the involvement of “various forces, including Portuguese”, as Social Democratic deputy António Maló de Abreu told Plataforma. “Portugal can play a very important role, together with the government of Mozambique and the UN to help find a political and military solution to the situation in Cabo Delgado”, stresses the deputy.
The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) “should also have a very special focus on this conflict and Portugal can also help in this context”. According to information gathered by the deputy, the Portuguese in the region have abandoned the most dangerous areas and fled to Pemba, where they are safer.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “in the Cabo Delgado region there are 50 companies with Portuguese capital and a community estimated at around 300 people”. Many of these companies are in the field of construction and two of them have already been attacked by Islamic insurgents. So far there has not been a single Portuguese victim in this conflict. On the other hand, in three years of terrorist attacks more than a thousand Mozambicans have already lost their lives and more than 200 thousand displaced people.
