JUST IN: Mnangagwa in Botswana for Troika meeting

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has arrived in Botswana, where he is attending an extraordinary SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation Heads of State Summit to discuss emerging peace and security situations in the region.

The President will join his counterparts – Presidents Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Félix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique during the meeting that will deliberate on the threat of Islamic insurgency in northern Mozambique.

The meeting will also address the re-organisation of the United Nations Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) in the DRC.

President Mnangagwa touched down this morning at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport where he was welcomed by the Batswana Defence Minister Patrick Mmusi.

Over 2 000 people have been killed while around 430 000 have been left homeless in the simmering insurgency affecting the gas-rich Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique since 2017.

The regional leaders will also discuss the reorganisation of the FIB, a multi-lateral military formation under the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (known as MONUSCO) authorised by the UN Security Council in 2003.

The FIB is the first UN peacekeeping operation specifically tasked to carry out targeted offensive operations to “neutralize and disarm” groups considered a threat to state authority and civilian security. -The Herald