Terrorism pressing peace, security challenge in Africa: South African foreign minister

By Hassan Isilow

The threat of terrorism and violent extremism remains one of the most pressing peace and security challenges that Africa is dealing with as terrorism has spread to more regions of the continent, South Africa’s foreign minister said over the weekend.

‘‘The terrorism and violent extremist acts in Cabo Delgado (province) are not only a security threat for Mozambique but for the wider Southern African region,’’ Ronald Ozzy Lamola said in an address Saturday at the inaugural Africa Peace and Security Dialogue held in the South African town of Magaliesburg.

Militant groups have wreaked havoc in northern Mozambique since late 2017, killing hundreds, displacing communities and capturing towns.

Lamola said South Africa decided to contribute troops towards the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc’s mission in Mozambique in recognition of the militant challenge the fellow member state faced.

There are several terrorist militant groups on the continent including the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab terror group, Boko-Haram in Nigeria, and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) from Uganda operating in eastern Congo.

He said the resurgence of violence in the Sahel region should also concern all.

“Let us all lend a helping hand to the peoples of that region to find lasting solutions to their conflicts,” he said.

The top South African diplomat also said the continent faced a challenge of coups.

“In the past few years, the continent has also experienced a resurgence of coups. Six member states remain suspended from the African Union because of unconstitutional government changes,” he noted.

Lamola said that currently, the two most worrying conflicts which have led to devastating humanitarian crises are in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

He said South Africa is committed as the Government of National Unity (GNU) to find an end to these wars, with Deputy President Paul Mashatile being the country’s peace envoy for South Sudan and President Cyril Ramaphosa focusing on the conflict in Sudan.

‘‘Unfortunately, both (DR Congo and Sudan) have not received adequate attention from the international community compared to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the devastating war in Gaza and recent tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors,’’ he noted.

He said South Africa will continue to support the leaders and people of South Sudan in their transition process towards a stable democracy.

Lamola further said that South Africa urges and supports the Libyan authorities in hosting the long-awaited inclusive reconciliation conference driven by the Libyan people.

He noted that in the past 30 years, South Africa has exerted huge political and diplomatic efforts at the highest level of leadership to negotiate conflicts on the continent, including those with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.