The Council of the European Union adopted on Friday the decision formally launching the military training mission in Mozambique to support the Mozambican forces in the face of armed attacks in Cabo Delgado, which is expected to be fully operational by December.
The Council (which brings together the 27 member states) announced in a statement the formal decision to launch the mission, called EUTM Mozambique, which aims to support "a more efficient and effective response by the Mozambican armed forces to the crisis in Cabo Delgado province, providing them with training and capacity building.
The mission will be commanded on the ground by Brigadier General Lemos Pires and will become operational "as soon as the ongoing transfer of the Portuguese Armed Forces Training Project is completed," pointing out then EU Council that it expects it "to reach full operational capability by mid-December 2021."
The mission, which will not engage in military operations, will have about 140 troops divided between two training centers - one for commando training and the other for marines - and the common costs for EUTM Mozambique, to be covered through the European Peace Facility, have been estimated at 15.16 million euros for a period of two years, the timeframe foreseen for its operations.
"The mission's mandate is expected to last for two years. During this period, its strategic objective is to support the capacity building of units of the Mozambican armed forces that will be part of a future rapid reaction force," the statement explained.
The Council specifies that the mission, which is open to the participation of third countries, will provide military training, including operational readiness, specialized counter-terrorism training, and training and education on the protection of civilians - especially women and girls in conflict - and will provide compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights law."
This announcement comes one day after the Government approved the proposal to appoint Brigadier-General Lemos Pires as commander of EUTM Mozambique, as well as the national contingent that will integrate this mission.
"The Government's proposal, to be submitted to His Excellency the President of the Republic [Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa], to appoint Brigadier General Nuno Correia Barrento de Lemos Pires as 'Mission Force Commander' of the European Union Training Mission in the Republic of Mozambique (EUTM MOZ) and the National Contingent that is part of the EUTM MOZ was approved," reads the statement released Thursday by the Council of Ministers.
On July 12, EU foreign ministers approved the establishment of a military training mission in Mozambique to "train and support the Mozambican Armed Forces" in "restoring security" in Cabo Delgado, a province in the northeast of the country that has been the scene of attacks by armed groups since 2017, some of which have been claimed by the extremist group Islamic State, with a tally of more than 3,100 dead and more than 817,000 displaced.
The launch of this mission was a priority of the Portuguese presidency of the EU Council, in the first half of this year, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, traveled in January to Mozambique as a representative of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, to identify the specific areas of support that the country needed to address the situation in Cabo Delgado.
On September 14, Portuguese General Nuno Lemos Pires left for Maputo and said, in an interview with Lusa news agency, that he was convinced that "by the end of the year" the mission would be fully operational.
Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas but terrorized by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
Lusa Agency