RWANDA killed 14 insurgents in Mozambique in fighting this week, an army spokesman said, adding that a Rwandan soldier had sustained a minor injury.
Rwanda has sent a 1,000-strong force to the southern African nation of Mozambique to help it combat an escalating Islamic State-linked insurgency.
The fighting took place between July 24 and 28 in the regions of Mbau and Awase, Rwandan military spokesman Ronald Rwivanga told Reuters.
“We mounted an ambush between Mbau and Awase where we killed two insurgents. And the rest of the fighting took place in Awase. We so far killed 14 insurgents in total,” Rwivanga said.
Almost 800,000 people have been displaced in Cabo Delgado and the fighting has brought a $20 billion natural gas project led by oil giant Total to a halt.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised the deployment of 1 495 soldiers to Mozambique.
Ramaphosa said the SANDF personnel would be used between July 15 and October 15 at an expected cost of R984- million rand ($66.3 million), a letter sent to the speaker of parliament showed.
In the letter. Ramaphosa referred specifically to authorising the employment of SANDF members and did not spell out how many of those would be soldiers deployed on Mozambican soil.
The conflict in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province has displaced hundreds of thousands and brought a natural gas project led by French energy company Total Energies to a grinding halt.
At the time SADC nations authorised the deployment of the bloc’s standby force, they did not say how many troops would be involved.
Ramaphosa’s letter said South Africa’s military would help Mozambique combat “acts of terrorism and violent extremists that affected the area of Cabo Delgado”.
