Peace mission in Mozambique to withdraw next week: Minister

James Kunda

LUSAKA, Zambia (AA) - A Southern African Development Community (SADC) peace mission in Mozambique is set to withdraw next week, an official announced at a ministerial meeting of the bloc on Friday.

Mulambo Haimbe, the foreign minister of Zambia, made the disclosure during the two-day 26th meeting of the ministerial committee of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defense, and Security.

"I wish to state that the SAMIM (SADC-Mission in Mozambique) has successfully reclaimed villages and will fully demobilize on July 15, 2024," he told delegates in Lusaka, the capital.

The SADC Mission in Mozambique, comprising troops from Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia, was deployed in the Cabo Delgado province in 2021 to quell fighting in the oil-rich region induced by rebel groups.

The Zambian top diplomat said the ministerial meeting expected the SADC Mission in DR Congo (SAMIMDRC) would "equally achieve its cause to address the insecurity in the eastern part of that country".

The meeting in Lusaka was a prelude to the Organ's heads of state and government meeting, slated to be held in Harare, Zimbabwe next month.