he Buhari administration has offered to support Mozambique in its fight against Islamist insurgents.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, visited Mozambique over the weekend and met Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, the BBC reported on Monday.
The Minister said Nigeria was willing to share its experience in fighting Islamist militants and provide support to Mozambique.
Details of how and when the aid would be channelled were not immediately clear. Nigeria has been grappling with its own leg of insurgency since 2009.
Boko Haram terrorists operating on the country’s northeastern fringe have killed over 100,000 civilians and security forces, with military chiefs expressing fears that the crisis may linger for several years ahead.
Mr. Onyema’s visit was a stop in his diplomatic tour to Southern African countries to garner support as Nigeria seeks to lead the peace and security council of the African Union (AU).
Other countries lobbying for this position include Tanzania, South Africa and Burkina. The elections are slated to hold later this week, at the AU’s summit, BBC reported.
The insurgency in Cabo Delgado has been ongoing largely between Islamist militants attempting to establish an Islamic state in the country, and Mozambican security forces.
The BBC cited figures from the International Committee of the Red Cross places deaths at over 2,000 people have been killed and more than 500,000 others displaced in the violence.
The militant group’s official name is Ahlu Sunnah wa-l-Jama’ah (ASWJ), but it is now referred to internationally as the Islamic State in Mozambique
In early October 2017, community heads in the Mocimboa da Praia region issued a complaint to the local authorities, who then arrested approximately 30 members of the group.
This led to retaliatory attacks by other group members, and state crackdowns resulted in mass arrests.
Since that incident, the group increased its attacks on smaller villages and killed local Sufi sheikhs. Between 2018 and 2019 , it began attacking isolated villages in daylight, increasing in numbers and expanding to other regions, with the Mocimboa da Praia, Palma and Macomia regions being the most affected.
