- SADC Troika meets tomorrow to finalise response to Cabo Delgado insurgency
- BDF expected to lead SADC intervention plan
- Masisi aims to score more votes for Elias Magosi as next SADC Sec Gen
LETLHOGILE MPUANG
President Mokgweetsi Masisi is expected to table the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) military and logistical response to the ongoing peace and security crisis in Cabo Delgado at the bloc’s summit (Thursday) in Maputo, Mozambique, The Botswana Gazette has established.
Masisi, who is the outgoing chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, will lead Thursday’s Troika meeting at which recommendations for intervention made by the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) and SADC’s Chief of Staff for Standby Forces, Michael Mukokomani, will be presented to the organ.
Although the Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation Dr. Lemogang Kwape would not get into details of the meeting, he confirmed that the recommendations made by the organ’s Troika will be put forward before the SADC summit.
“The Organ Troika will advise the SADC summit on a way forward in relation to the Cabo Delgado insurgency. The Organ Troika meeting will be held in the morning and proceed to advise the summit in the afternoon,” Kwape said.
The plan drafted by the BDF and the SADC Secretariat entails a forceful intervention involving two ships, a submarine, five aircraft, two drones and more than 2,900 troops, including 140 commandos. The plan also includes broader intelligence cooperation to enable SADC to have more information about the situation on the ground in Mozambique.
Since the beginning of 2020, the Cabo Delgabo insurgency has claimed the lives of over 2 500 civilians while close to 700 000 people have been internally displaced.
Masisi’s masterstroke?
According to international experts, should President Masisi and his Organ Troika members succeed in their drive against the putsch, the profile former Permanent Secretary to the President Elias Magosi will be made more robust and his chances of winning majority votes to become the next Secretary General of SADC raised.
The President has been touring the SADC region in a bid to solicit support for both Magosi and the SADC Troika’s plan for regional intervention to end the Cabo Delgado crisis. Magosi will face off competition from DRC’s Faustin Luanga Mukela for the SADC top post in August. The winner will lead SADC’s secretariat for the next four years.
The SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security is managed on a Troika basis and is responsible for promoting peace and security in the SADC region. It’s mandate is to steer and provide member states with direction regarding matters that threaten peace, security and stability in the region.