Africa Monitor

Africa Monitor Intelligence

Mozambique: US Involvement Threatens Security Companies Business

International military cooperation and the strengthening of FADM equipment and means of combat in Cabo Delgado will be priority issues for the new Chief of Staff of the FADM, Alm. JOAQUIM MANGRASSE (JM), chosen by PR FILIPE NYUSI (FN) to succeed Gen. EUGÉNIO MUSSA (AM 1282). JM will also have new Chiefs of Staff in the Army (CRISTOVÃO CHUME) and in the Air Force (C NDIDO TIRANO).
American military assistance will be developed in the field of the formation and training of troops - marines and paratroopers. The presence in the country of foreign security companies, known as mercenaries, stems from the collaboration they have been providing to the FADM in the fight against the insurgency in Cabo Delgado. They were hired at the initiative of the Government; its personnel, of South African origin, has military training.
The reservations of the USA regarding their presence in the country are referred to aspects considered obscure of its action, but also to its alleged complicity in corruption phenomena linked to the FA operational campaign in Cabo Delgado.
PR and military leaders gave priority to hiring private security companies - first to Wagner (AM 1211), with connections to the Russian Armed Forces and Kremlin, and, more recently, the South African Dyck Advisory Group (DAG). In both cases there was friction with the FADM and the deployment of aerial means and experts did not stop the advance of insurgents, who on the contrary have been consolidating positions, namely on the coast of the province.
Unlike EM, who knows the terrain of Cabo Delgado for having served as commander of the northern operational zone, the new CEMG FADM, former head of the Military Cabinet of the PR (CMPR), has above all qualities of organizer, with good theoretical knowledge, being considered a “cabinet” military. READ MORE