Good afternoon. The Mozambican parliament’s Defence, Security and Public Order Committee has begun a working visit to Cabo Delgado, declaring that military operations against the insurgency are legal and necessary to defend national sovereignty.
On one level, that is self-evident. Every state has the right, indeed the obligation, to defend its territory against an armed insurgency. But that is not the question Parliament should be asking.
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For nearly a decade, Cabo Delgado has been Mozambique's biggest national security challenge. It has claimed thousands of lives, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, drawn in foreign military forces and reshaped the country's political and economic priorities. Yet the Assembleia da República has played only a limited public role in examining the conflict or holding the executive to account.
That makes this week's visit welcome in itself. Mozambique's elected representatives should spend more time in Cabo Delgado, listening not only to military commanders but also to local authorities, humanitarian organisations, businesses and the communities most directly affected by the conflict.
