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2021-04-23 Africa Subsaharan
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Southern Africa: Limited Legal Options for SADC Military Action in Cabo Delgado
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[All Africa] The five-day terror attack on the coastal town of Palma last month once again stressed the severity of the conflict in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province. In its fourth year, the insurgency shows no signs of dissipating and exposes Mozambique's lack of political will to address the problem. It also reveals the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) difficulties in crafting a regional response.
The bloc's communiqué after its 8 April meeting in response to the Palma assault said the 'heinous attacks cannot be allowed to continue without a proportionate regional response.' The meeting mandated an immediate 'SADC Organ technical deployment' to Mozambique.
While it remains unclear what the technical deployment means or aims to achieve, the communiqué suggests a SADC military response is being considered. Another meeting is planned for 28 and 29 April.
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If SADC decides on military action, it will need to be rooted in international and regional law. SADC has numerous legal bases for a military response. These include military assistance on request (intervention by invitation), collective self-defence, and United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
Security Council-approved military intervention. The first two contemplate cooperation founded on Mozambican consent; the third can be used when Mozambican support isn't forthcoming.
The insurgency, now in its fourth year, exposes Mozambique's lack of political will to address the crisis
The most direct option for military help on request would see SADC relying on the Mozambican government's consent to deploy troops from neighbouring states. Mozambique could also consent to a SADC-proposed military response. A similar legal basis is found in the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
's (AU) Constitutive Article. Act 4(j) allows member states to ask the AU to intervene to restore peace and security.
Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi hasn't agreed to any such response. He's repeatedly emphasised the country's sovereign status and indicated that Mozambique alone would decide on the terms and conditions of any international aid it may need.
In September 2020, South Africa's international relations minister Naledi Pandor said her country would provide military and intelligence services support, contingent on a Mozambican request. But no invitation has been forthcoming.
A day before the 8 April meeting, Nyusi reaffirmed that Mozambican illusory sovereignty impedes it from requesting military help. The country has so far preferred bilateral and non-state support - including using private military companies - to formal SADC help.
Zim-bob-wean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, outgoing chairperson of SADC's Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, said after the SADC meeting: 'the SADC force' is to be 'resuscitated and capacitated immediately.' But it's still unclear whether the bloc has proposed military aid.
SADC HAS NEVER UNDERTAKEN A MILITARY INTERVENTION WITHOUT A MEMBER STATE'S CONSENT
Intervention without state consent is unlikely. Previous SADC military responses, notably in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
 ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo , which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
(1998) and Lesotho (1998, 2017), were based on the governments' consent. SADC has never undertaken an intervention without a member state's consent. 
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Posted by Fred 2021-04-23 00:00||
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File under: al-Shabaab (IS-Mozambique)
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