Harare — There are growing fears that Mozambique’s terrorism insurgents could spill into several countries across Southern Africa.
In Zimbabwe, many fear terrorists operating in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which is over 1,000 kilometers away from Harare, could soon hit the country.
“It’s difficult to rule out the fact that the terrorists haunting Mozambique will soon be here in Zimbabwe especially as our government has already made its intentions to step in to help Mozambique fight the terrorists,” Claris Madhuku who heads the Platform for Youth Development, told Ubuntu Times.
On the 14th of this month, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa traveled to Mozambique to meet his counterpart President Filipe Nyusi over the destabilization there.
Last month, Mnangagwa said acts of terrorism in Mozambique were shocking, pledging to help the eastern neighbor in any way possible to counter the acts.
Madhuku also said ‘terror attacks in Mozambique are a threat not only to SADC but Africa as a whole.’
“Military intervention to thwart the vigilant group is not sustainable. The regional leaders must invest more in understanding these conflicts that are sometimes sponsored by economic interests and greed,” said Madhuku.
Mnangagwa made calls earlier last month to have soldiers deployed to neighboring Mozambique to crush terrorists in that country.
Turning to Twitter after militants beheaded over 50 people in northern Mozambique during attacks on several villages, Zimbabwe’s strongman said: “These acts of barbarity must be stamped out wherever they are found.”
With the terrorists flexing their muscles in the region, two months ago, they (terrorists) carried their war across the border into Tanzania, beheading 20 people in Tanzania’s Mtwara province near the border with Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado district.
Now, Zimbabwean students like 23-year-old Phineas Mbiza of the University of Zimbabwe are openly deriding the terror conflict in Mozambique.
“To me, these are mere Jihadist extremists searching for converts to their cruel belief system,” said Mbiza.
Yet, the government of the United States of America has also recently said it feared the spillage of terror attacks from Mozambique into nearby countries.
The US Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Nathan Sales briefed journalists following his recent visit to Mozambique, warning that the on-going violence in the neighboring country could spill over into neighboring countries and destabilize the SADC region.
With the entire Southern Africa region under threat from terrorists, in Zimbabwe, Mbiza said ‘loss of African lives through terror attacks confirm how threatened we are.’
Zimbabwean political analysts like Farai Gwenhure who is a law student with the University of Southern Africa, said ‘when you have a region in which unemployment is very high it can easily be a breeding ground for radicalization and extremist recruitment especially of young people.’
Speaking of terror spillage in SADC, Gwenhure also said ‘there is a high risk of the spread of terrorism, yes; we all know how ISIS started to spread in Iraq and Syria.’
A known anti-government political activist in Zimbabwe, Elvis Mugari, said ‘I foresee instability in the whole of SADC if there would be military intervention in Mozambique.’
“Rather, Mozambique government must engage the extremist leaders, map a way forward with them, try to address their concerns in a humane and diplomatic way,” Mugari told Ubuntu Times.