from ALLOYCE KIMBUNGA in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
DAR-ES-SALAAM, (CAJ News) – BY cooperating in their counter-insurgency efforts, Mozambique and Tanzania have saved a diplomatic fallout.
The cooperation provides for joint operations between the two countries’ security forces.
The two countries were headed for friction after Tanzanian forces fired rockets into Mozambique, injuring civilians three weeks ago.
Mozambican police chief, Bernardino Rafael, has signed a memorandum of understanding with his counterparts in the Tanzanian security forces.
Also, Tanzanian police have arrested people they suspected of traveling to Mozambique to join the insurgency.
Those arrested included people from Kigoma, Mtwara and Mwanza regions of Tanzania.
It is alleged some collaborated with insurgents during their late October incursions into Tanzania.
While police did not disclose how many had been arrested, Mozambican government later said Tanzania has arrested 562 people.
The above-mentioned memorandum would see some 516 prisoners suspected of being involved with the insurgency extradited to Mozambique to stand trial.
The group is said to include Mozambicans, Tanzanians, Somalis, Congolese, Rwandans, and Burundians.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) stated it was unclear, given the slow pace of terrorism prosecutions in Mozambique, how the Mozambican justice system would handle the sudden influx of terrorism suspects.
“To the extent that the prisoners are actually associated with the insurgency, however, they may provide useful intelligence for the government,” the organisation stated.
Mozambique and Tanzania share an 800 km border.
Islamist groups are blamed for the terror attacks in Mozambique and recent forays into Tanzania.
More than 2 000 people have been killed, according to ACLED with more than 300, 000 others displaced.
– CAJ News