Portugal will propose in Brussels a "change to the mandate" of the European Union (EU) training for the Mozambican Armed Forces, in view of the withdrawal of the international counter-terrorism mission in Cabo Delgado, announced the Portuguese Foreign Minister, quoted by the newspaper Notícias.

"With the experience we've gained and also with the change in reality, due to the departure of the SADC [Southern African Development Community] troops, we're going to propose a renewal of the European Union's training mandate and an amendment to that mandate so that it's a little more comprehensive and so that it has lessons learned from the experience of the troops trained by the European Union in fighting in northern Mozambique. In other words, to adapt the training a little to the reality", said the Portuguese Foreign Minister, who is in Kigali on an official visit.

João Gomes Cravinho stressed that Rwanda "is a very important partner" for Portugal, "a country that pays a lot of attention to the African continent", and "a key player" in scenarios where Portuguese military personnel are involved, such as Mozambique and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Since July 2021, Rwanda has had an autonomous military force deployed in Cabo Delgado to combat terrorist groups operating in the north of the country, operating in conjunction with the Mozambique Armed Defense Forces. Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have also joined these military operations, through SAMIM, whose mission is due to end in June.

"SAMIM has already begun its withdrawal operations and by June it will have left the theater, which leaves a certain vacuum and therefore one of the topics of our conversation was precisely how to support Mozambique in preventing this vacuum from being taken advantage of by terrorist forces in Cabo Delgado," Gomes Cravinho said in the same publication.

Portugal has taken command of the EU Training Mission in Mozambique (EUTM-MOZ), which began in September 2022 and has a two-year mandate. The current mission consists of a contingent of 117 people, 65 of whom are Portuguese.