Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/12/southern-africa-bloc-sadc-extends-mozambique-mission
The southern African regional bloc, SADC, has extended troop deployment to Mozambique to aid the country in fighting an armed uprising. There has been good progress with troop deployment in Mozambique, so they decided to extend the mandate. The SADC members and Rwanda decided to send troops to Mozambique last June to respond to the uprising which occured in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that progress is being made and some internally displaced people were able to return home. There are also humanitarian efforts for areas affected by the violence. Cabo Delgado is a gas rich province that has been hit by attacks since 2017. This has cost the lives of more than 3,500 people and caused 820,000 to flee their homes. Some of the violence has included massacres, destruction of homes, and mass abductions of mostly girls.
This is significant because the violence has been going on in Cabo Delgado since 2017 and has cost the lives of many people. This also shows the benefit of IGO’s in the way that countries are able to work together to more effectively stop a conflict in the region. I hope that the countries in the SADC will take higher measures to stop this conflict as it has been going on for several years now. Not only that their economy will suffer due to the magnitude of displaced individuals, but these atrocities are happening to real people, not just numbers which needs to be taken seriously. Hopefully the SADC will be able to achieve their mission of peace and security in Mozambique because the country can’t be prosperous when the people are facing danger. The uprisings need to end so displaced people can return and lead normal lives and be able to work again which will help the SADC economic goals as well.
This relates to what we talk about in class because the SADC bloc is an intergovernmental organization with multiple African countries. The members include Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.This displays the rise of IGOs and the importance of them in regional security. This can also be connected to the Collective goods problem because SADC was created to help achieve the countries collective interests of economic development, peace and security, and growth. This can also be connected to the concept of offshore balancing where countries in the region (the members of the SADC) work to solve the conflict but the global powers, like the U.S., arent involving themselves in all conflicts unless it becomes an international threat which this conflict hasn’t become yet.