The Algerian government has vowed that it will support the Mozambican defence and security forces in the war against Islamist terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, summarising his four-day working stay in Algeria, said that the Algerian authorities have pledged to support the Mozambican forces with training tools.

“This is going to happen”, he expressed.

“We can speak of forms of training, exchanges of information etc. This was a conclusion that was taken instantly. To this end, we will conclude the instrument that will guide association in defence and security”.

While work on this guiding document is being concluded, Nyusi said, the Algerian government has pledged immediate support in individual equipment for members of the local militias who are battling the terrorists alongside the armed forces.

“We hope that within a short time, this equipment will arrive”,

he stated. The Mozambican delegation had informed the Algerians that the local militias in Cabo Delgado included veterans from the Mozambican independence war, who had obtained their training in Algeria, in the 1960s. However, these local forces are hindered by a severe shortage of basic equipment, including boots and raincoats. As for the war against crime, Nyusi said Algeria will assist train police cadres in the action against kidnapping gangs in the major cities.

The President also revealed that Algeria will finance the construction of a national pantheon in homage to the heroes of the Mozambican independence effort. It will constructed on the grounds of the ex-arsenal in the Maputo neighbourhood of Malhazine.

Nyusi recalled that the existing Heroes’ Square in Maputo had originally been planned as transitional. But this shift lasted for 48 years. Heroes Square, he said,

“is in a position where I do not think souls can rest in peace since cars are always driving past”.

Nyusi announced that the two governments have chosen to reactivate the Mozambique-Algeria Joint Commission and the Economic Forum between the two nations.

The Joint Commission, he stated,

“is the umbrella that will permit the discussion of everything, and the coordination of all the operating instruments”.

During Nyusi’s visit, Mozambique and Algeria inscribed agreements on waiving entry visas for holders of diplomatic and service passports, on partnership in energy, and veterinary services and on plant quarantine and protection.