When bilateral relations triumph over regional

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries might have been disappointed at Rwanda’s precedence over the deployment of its forces to the troubled Mozambique, ahead of defense deployment from their countries, but the Rwandan and Mozambican governments have had good bilateral relations strengthened at the signing of several agreements in 2018. 

Mozambique, geographically located in the southern part of the African continent, is a regional member of the SADC, while Rwanda belongs to the East African Community (EAC).

The Rwandan government had almost a week ahead of SADC’s finalization of its troops deployment to Mozambique, announced that it was in the process of deploying a 1000 person contingent of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and the Rwanda National Police (RNP) to Mozambique’s province of Cabo Delgado, which had been terrorized by insurgents, at the request of the Mozambique government. 


Rwanda had in its statement not shied away that its deployment was based on the good bilateral relations between the two countries, among other reasons which included the Right to Protect (R2P). 

Rwanda had however also indicated that the joint force was to work closely with the Mozambique Armed Defence Forces (FADM) as well as with forces from the SADC.

Geopolitically, in the geographic sense of the term, it would have been expected that the SADC forces would be the first on the ground, considering Mozambique’s southern position. According to the SADC, its vision is to “build a region in which there will be a high degree of harmonization and rationalization”, while deeper co-operation and integration remain tenets of its mission. 

The SADC has also been monitoring security threats of terrorism and violent extremism in Mozambique.

The 16-state regional body was expected to send a regional force into Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province by end of this week.

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