The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has approved the extension until August of the military mission deployed in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado (north) to support the efforts of the Mozambican authorities in the fight against jihadism.

The mandate of the Regional Operations Coordination Mechanism of the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) was due to expire on Friday, but the regional body has opted for a one-month extension due to the continued existence of the threat.

“Considering that next month there will be a SADC summit in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the SADC ‘troika’ has decided that it was time to take a decision on behalf of the summit (…) for SAMIM to continue to operate within the legal framework of SADC,” said Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera.

“As one family, we have taken the decision to extend our mission in Mozambique to continue to maintain the progress achieved by this mission,” said the president, who is also the current president of SADC, according to the Mozambican newspaper ‘O Pais’.

The Presidency of Mozambique has also pointed out that the extension has been approved “on a provisional basis” to “make the continuation of the operations viable”, in view of the next SADC summit, which will take place on August 17 and 18 in the DRC, according to the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Cabo Delgado has been the scene since October 2017 of attacks by Islamist militiamen known as Al Shabaab, unrelated to the eponymous group operating in Somalia, which maintains ties to Al Qaeda. Since mid-2019 they have been mostly claimed by Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), which has stepped up its actions since March 2020.