This Saturday, July 18, the summit of the CPLP, the community of Portuguese-speaking countries, ended in Luanda. Angola took over the rotating presidency of this organization of nine member states, including Mozambique. The conflict in Cabo Delgado, in the far north of the country, where Total suspended its gas project after a jihadist attack in early April, was one of the summits, but no concrete support was decided.
With our special correspondent in Luanda, Carina Branco
It was in the absence of Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, replaced by his Prime Minister, that the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, was mentioned by the Heads of State and Government. Speaking countries.
In the corridors, we wondered if this absence was due to President Nyusi’s unwillingness to allow the arrival of foreign troops from SADC and the European Union to fight the rebels. Although 1,000 Rwandan soldiers left Kigali to join the Mozambican troops on Friday, we know that the Mozambican president would have preferred simple logistical support and training.
In the final declaration of this Portuguese-speaking summit, therefore, there is no decision but only a declaration of solidarity and a condemnation of the attacks.
“The member countries of the organization take this opportunity to show their solidarity with the people of Mozambique for the suffering caused by terrorist acts that have severely affected the province of Cabo Delgado. Our meeting today strengthens awareness of the need for multilateral cooperation for a rapid response to the challenges of the present and the future and to emerge from the serious crisis we are in, “said the Angolan President, João Lourenço, who took over the Portuguese-speaking bloc. rotating presidency.
Cabo Delgado has suffered from armed attacks since 2017, many of which are claimed by the Islamic State group. It is estimated that they have left 2,800 dead and more than 700,000 displaced.
A circulation agreement between the nine Member States
The summit also resulted in a first mobility agreement between the organization’s nine countries. This agreement is historic, as it took 25 years, the age of the CPLP, to agree on the mobility of 300 million people from nine countries on four continents.
However, the resolution passed on Saturday is still vague. It creates a “framework for cooperation” but in a “flexible and varied” way. That is, each country can choose the mode of movement and the people affected. Its initiation risks becoming a headache for the parliaments of the countries that have not yet ratified the agreement.
During this summit, the Angolan president also launched the challenge of creating an investment bank within this formerly rather linguistic and cultural bloc. In the final resolution of the summit, the CPLP also encouraged Equatorial Guinea, also a member of the group, to keep its promise to abolish the death penalty and respect human rights.
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