Should the European Union (EU) continue its financial support to Rwanda to help it fight against jihadists in Mozambique or sanction Kigali for its active support of the M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ), in defiance of international condemnations?
While the DRC has increased pressure on the EU to stop supporting Kigali, Brussels does not intend to choose. “The fight against the Islamist insurgency in Mozambique, led by Rwanda, and the fighting in eastern DRC, where Rwanda also plays a role, are two distinct, complex and equally important subjects in the eyes of Europeans”said a European diplomat while EU foreign ministers met on Monday June 24 in Luxembourg to discuss these issues in particular.
On the one hand, the instability in the Cabo Delgado region in northern Mozambique still worries the Europeans, where several of their companies, TotalEnergies and Eni in particular, plan to exploit large gas deposits – an investment of 20 billion euros for the French group’s only gas field. Since 2021, work has been stopped there following the attack by the Islamists of Ansar al-Sunna, the Mozambican branch of the Islamic State group, on Palma.
Since the start of the conflict in 2017, the insurgency has caused the deaths of more than 5,000 people, according to the site’s count. Cabo Ligadoand forced the displacement of nearly a million Mozambicans, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
A “new European vision”?
To secure the area, where the Mozambican army quickly found itself completely overwhelmed, after the failure of Wagner’s Russian mercenaries, a first interposition force was deployed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). , in 2021, before Rwanda offered, at French suggestion, to intervene, with financial support from the EU.
Portugal, Italy and France, keen to reconcile with Kigali, had in fact convinced their European partners to release 20 million euros, from the European Peace Facility (EFF, a fund which makes it possible to finance military aid), in order to support the transport of Rwandan troops to Mozambique and the purchase of non-lethal equipment (tents, vehicles, generators, etc.).
At the same time, Europe financed the Mozambican armed forces with 89 million euros, created a training mission for them and released 15 million euros for the SADC mission.
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