Concurrent military deployments in Mozambique and their permissibility under SADC treaty law
Posted: 28 July, 2021 Filed under: Marko Svicevic | Tags: Cabo Delgado, deployment, Extraordinary Summit, military, military assistance, Military Veterans, Mozambique, peace, President Filipe Nyusi, RDF, RNP, Rwanda, Rwanda National Congress, SADC, SADC Protocol, SADC Standby Force, SADC Standby Force Mission to Mozambique, SADC Treaty, security, South Africa, treaty law, United Nations Security Council, UNSC, violent extremism Leave a commentAuthor: Marko Svicevic
Post-doctoral research fellow, South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg
On 23 June 2021, the Extraordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government approved the deployment of a military force to Cabo Delgado in support of Mozambique’s fight against violent extremism in the province. The approval of the deployment, termed the SADC Standby Force Mission to Mozambique, was a delayed yet surprising response from the bloc to an increasingly volatile situation. The violence in Cabo Delgado is approaching its fourth year now, has resulted in over 3000 deaths, and has internally displaced over 700 000 people.
The SADC deployment seems to be based on the consent of the Mozambican government. What complicates the matter however is that even before SADC was able to deploy, Rwanda has already dispatched some 1000 troops to the province at Mozambique’s request.
Is southern Africa entering its own ‘War on Terror’?
Posted: 6 July, 2021 Filed under: Marko Svicevic | Tags: acts of terrorism, Al-Qaeda, Angola, Ansar al-Sunna, apartheid, Cabo Delgado, conflict, DRC, extremism, foreign fighters, ISIS, Lesotho, military, Mozambique, Namibia, SADC, SADC Deployment, SADC interventions, SADC Standby Force Mission to Mozambique, SADC Summit, South Africa, Southern African Development Community (SADC), Southern African Development Coordination Conference, Tanzania, terror, terrorists, violent extremism, war, war on terror Leave a commentAuthor: Marko Svicevic
Post-doctoral research fellow, South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg
What the proposed SADC deployment in Mozambique means for the sub-region
Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met again on 23 June 2021 in Maputo to discuss the expanding insurgency in northern Mozambique. It’s the first time the Summit has met since a technical assessment to Mozambique recommended a 3000 strong military deployment. In a communique issued following the meeting, the SADC Summit – its highest decision-making body – endorsed the recommendations made by the technical assessment and approved a mandate for the SADC Standby Force Mission to Mozambique.
From domestic grievances to terrorist acts and foreign aggression
Now approaching its fourth year, the conflict in Mozambique has raged across Cabo Delgado, its northern most province neighboring Tanzania. Initially, the Mozambican government seemed to brush off the violence as local criminality. In the last year and a half however, it has consistently re-framed this narrative as one of ‘foreign aggression.’ Both arguments have merit; there is ample research to suggest the drivers of the conflict are placed with a sense of neglect by the government together with high levels of poverty and unemployment. At the same time, the conflict is being internationalised with some evidence of foreign fighters joining the ‘insurgency’, which has since become known as Ansar al-Sunna. Further yet, the group’s pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) in 2019 and the US designation of ‘ISIS-Mozambique’ as Specially Designated Global Terrorists may be playing into Maputo’s newfound narrative: that the conflict is not rooted in domestic issues but constitutes an act of aggression against Mozambique’s sovereignty.
The ISIS threat against South Africa: preliminary questions, considerations and the potential for a regional response
Posted: 9 September, 2020 Filed under: Marko Svicevic | Tags: 40th ordinary summit, Ansar al-Sunna, Cabo Delgado, Dr Naledi Pandor, Dyck Advisory Group, insurgency, ISIS, military assistance, Mocimboa de Praia, Mozambique, propaganda, Protocol on the SADC Tribunal, South Africa, threat, UN Security Council Committee, Wagner Group 1 CommentAuthor: Marko Svicevic
Post-doctoral research fellow, South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg
Introduction
The recent threat issued against South Africa by the ISIS-affiliated insurgency in Mozambique has once again signaled a growing reality facing the country – an ever-increasing terrorist presence in the SADC region. While the insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province has been around for several years, it is the first time that South Africa has been the target of an open threat. Not unexpectedly, a number of questions have arisen. This post serves to highlight some preliminary questions and considerations relating to the insurgency in Mozambique and the potential threat to South Africa. These include among others: links the current insurgency holds with ISIS, the credibility of the threat issued against South Africa, probability and capacity for the insurgency (or ISIS) to follow through with the threat, and the potential for a regional response.
COVID-19: How more access to the internet can reduce existing barriers for women’s rights in Africa
Posted: 4 May, 2020 Filed under: Nelly Warega, Tomiwa Ilori | Tags: Access to Information, access to information online, Africa, civil society organisations, coronavirus, COVID-19, CSOs, digital platforms, digital skills, domestic violence, health services, inequalities, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, internet access, Kenya, Lagos State Government Health Service Commission, lockdown, mainstream media, maternal health, maternal mortality, Mozambique, Nigeria, pandemic, PPE, PPEs, smart phones, South Africa, Uganda, women's rights Leave a commentAuthors: Nelly Warega* and Tomiwa Ilori**
*Legal Advisor, Women’s Link Worldwide
**Doctoral researcher, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
On 17 April 2020, a Twitter user tweeted about a hospital in Lagos that demanded personal protective equipment (PPE) from a woman seeking to give birth at the facility. The incident, according to the user happened at the General Hospital, Ikorodu, under the Lagos State Government Health Service Commission. The PPEs have become important for health workers given the surge in transmission COVID-19 across the world. However, despite the rising demand and scarcity of PPEs, a conversation on the propriety of placing the burden of procurement of PPEs on expectant mothers is vital.
Strengthening children’s rights in Africa: Some lessons from the new Children’s Act of Angola
Posted: 4 June, 2013 Filed under: Aquinaldo Mandlate | Tags: Africa, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), Angola, basic education, children, children's rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), culture, food, juvenile justice, life expectancy, literacy, Mozambique, nutrition, socio-economic rights, sports, violence against children 2 CommentsAuthor: Aquinaldo Mandlate
LLD (UWC), LLM (UP) Licenciatura em Direito (UCM)
On 22 August 2012, Angola enacted a new Children’s Act, adding to the number of African countries (including South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Lesotho, and many others) which reviewed their legislation focusing on children’s rights. Angolan law, like many other recent African legislation on children, is comprehensive and detailed in multiple aspects of children’s rights. Some of its features are common in other similar instruments in the region. For instance, it protects children’s civil and political rights and their socio-economic rights. The right to life, the right to health and the right to basic education, amongst others are protected. In addition, the law entrenches the four principles forming the core of international and regional treaties dealing with children’s rights (the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) included), including the principles of non-discrimination (Article 2 of the CRC and Article 3 of the ACRWC), best interest of the child (Article 3 of the CRC and Article 4 of the ACRWC), the right to life survival and development (Article of the 6 CRC and Article 5 of the ACRWC), and the right of the child to participate (Article 12 CRC and Article 7 of the ACRWC). These principles are also part and parcel of other modern African child legislation.
A detailed account of the similarities between the Angolan Children’s Act and other instruments falls beyond the objectives of this contribution. However, I would like to highlight some of the major contributions (amongst others not discussed here) as a result of the Act, in efforts to advance children’s rights.