Maputo — Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has claimed that, despite the terrorism that has been plaguing some districts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado since 2017, the country is relatively stable.
According to government figures, the latest wave of attacks by Islamist terrorists in Cabo Delgado has displaced more than 60,000 people over the provincial boundary into the neighboring province of Nampula.
The President was speaking on Thursday in Algiers, during his four-day working visit to Algeria.
During the meeting, the delegations of the two countries signed legal instruments in the areas of hydrocarbons, energy, agriculture, fisheries and public and military security.
“We informed our traditional Algerian brothers of the situation in Mozambique, which enjoys relative political stability, with institutions functioning normally’, Nyusi said.
“We went into detail about the fact that the country is facing various challenges, especially the phenomenon of terrorism and violent extremism that is plaguing some regions of the province of Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, but we also talked about cyclical natural disasters in Mozambique, such as droughts and cyclones’, he added.
“The country is in an electoral season that began with the municipal elections in October last year, and continues until 9 October this year with the General and Provincial Elections’, he said.
Nyusi also invited Algerian businesses to invest in Mozambique. “The potential is immense in the areas of agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, mining, energy and fisheries. Combined with the experience and scientific and technological knowledge that Algeria has, this can make our economic co-operation vibrant’, he said.
Nyusi believes that it is “in our interest to transform our resources in Mozambique to employ more Mozambicans, as well as creating income for families.’
“Cooperation between the two countries is developing on the basis of the general cooperation agreement signed between the two governments in December 1985 in Algiers, during the visit of the late President Samora Machel. This visit was reciprocated by Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid the following year, in 1986′, he said.
“We are here to improve this scenario and fulfill the dream of the leaders of our countries who sowed the seeds of this unbreakable relationship, declared Nyusi.
“We want the seed they sowed to germinate, to grow into succulent fruit and to be passed on to all future generations’, he said.
The Algerian President, Abdelmajid Tebboune, for his part, pledged to make the four agreements they had signed viable.