By Mercy Makuwira
Maputo, April 9, Mana: President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera says Malawi is ready to host the forthcoming SADC extraordinary meeting scheduled to take place in August, this year.
The President was speaking at a press briefing at Maputo International Airport on Thursday before departure for Malawi after attending an Extraordinary Double Troika Summit that was convened to deliberate on measures to address terrorism in Mozambique.
“As you are well aware, Malawi will be taking over the SADC leadership this year, as such, as a country, we are more than prepared to hold this meeting.
“Currently, committees have already started meeting to plan for the forthcoming meeting,” said Chakwera.
On the just ended extraordinary Double Troika Summit he had attended, Chakwera said Malawi as a country would work in collaboration with other member states to fight the terrorism acts taking place in Mozambique.
“We will work with collective action as a SADC region in dealing with terrorism acts happening here in Mozambique.
“As a region, we are all in agreement that all of us are facing one common enemy that we have to fight as a unit,” said Chakwera.
During the official opening of the Extraordinary Double Troika Summit, President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi had called for concerted efforts by all SADC member states in dealing with terrorism that has rocked the country
“There is need for us to be proactive in dealing with all terrorist activities here in Mozambique. We need to make available human and capital resources in dealing with these terrorists so that their acts do not escalate to the whole region,” said Nyusi.
During their deliberations, the member states came up with a number of resolutions, one of them being a directive by the members for an immediate technical deployment to Mozambique.
They also agreed to convene an extraordinary meeting of the ministerial committee on the Organ (Troika) by April 28 that will report to the Extraordinary Troika Summit on April 29, this year.
Mozambique is experiencing terrorism acts by an armed militant group known as al-Shabaab that is attacking the coastal town of Palma in Cabo Delgado where according to a report by UNHCR the attacks have left more than 670,000 people displaced.
Upon receiving reports of the attacks, President of Botswana called the extraordinary meeting so that members of the Troika organ on Politics Defence and Security Cooperation member states comprising of the Republic of Botswana South Africa and Zimbabwe met thereafter meeting members of SADC Double Troika members comprising of Mozambique, Current Chair of SADC, Malawi incoming Chair, and Tanzania Outgoing Chair meet and discuss on how to deal with the attacks as a unit.
After their deliberations a communique on the key outcomes of the Extraordinary Double Troika Summit was made that will guide the members on the action points to be taken to deal with the attacks.
The Southern African Development Community is a regional economic community comprising 16 Member States; Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
