Kagame’s visit to Mozambique: A new dawn for Africa

On Saturday, September 24, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, concluded his two-day visit to Mozambique, not a customary visit to the country’s  capital, Maputo, but in the northern town of Pemba, capital of the now ‘famous’ Cabo Delgado Province. 

His host, President Filipe Nyusi, thanked him for being with Mozambicans, which was, he said, an evidence of deep solidarity with the people of Mozambique.

The visit is symbolic, and certainly, a new dawn for Africa.And it happened on the day Mozambicans celebrated their Army Day, and 57 years of the beginning of a liberation struggle against colonial rule.

It was the first time in Mozambique’s history that marking Army Day in Mozambique was done in Cabo Delgado, a Province which Nyusi called the cradle of the heroic struggle of the Mozambican people against foreign domination.

As recent as June 2021, parts of Cabo Delgado were no-go areas controlled by extremist terrorists where terror reined and hundreds of thousands of people were driven out of their homes by these terrorists. 

Pemba itself was a ghost town.

When news first broke out that terrorists were overrunning Cabo Delgado, driving out the state apparatus and consolidating a reign of terror on the population, very few people in the world gave it the attention it deserved.

Others looked at it as a short-lived episode that will come to pass after a few days. Then the sustained violence against the population drove people out of their homes, leaving behind cities in ruins.

As the terrorists consolidated their grip on the region, tangible action against them was seen as a receding mirage.  The need to ideologically remove all the geographical boundaries and embrace the notion that we all share a common identity, as Africans, and being our brothers’ keepers can best explain Rwanda’s decision to intervene in Mozambique.

Through bilateral agreements, Rwanda and Mozambique agreed to wage a war against the insurgents, defeat them and restore law and order in Cabo Delgado. The timeline for this mission was literally open-ended and therefore not time-specific but rather mission-specific. Failure was not one of the objectives on the table.

In about two months, what was believed to be an undertaking that would take several month, or possibly years, had essentially been achieved. The terrorists were dislodged and citizens are now making their way back to their communities from Internally Displaced Persons’ camps.

Is the mission over? No; said President Kagame during his distinctive visit in Cabo Delgado that certainly represents a new dawn in the African continent. He was accompanied by his Mozambican counterpart President Filipe Nyusi.

Kagame’s visit to the now pacified Cabo Delgado, has not only challenged the stereotyping of African leadership by foreigners but has defied the long time African perception that solutions to our problems can only come from the West or elsewhere but our continent.

For Rwandans, it was a unique beautiful day. We already know and have seen our President in military outfit. We just love to see him in those outfits not for any other reasons but the very obvious ones. 

The first one, it reignites our memories of the liberation struggle when Kagame as the commander of the liberation forces, successfully liberated Rwanda and put an end to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. 

Secondly, it amplifies our hope and resilience as a people because, seeing him in the outfit, reminds us of his true charisma and great abilities.  It was the first time President Kagame visited Rwandan troops serving in other countries. And to spice it all, together with his counterpart, President Nyusi, as Commanders in Chief, it sent a loud and clear message of what African leaders can achieve through cooperation.

In his address to Rwandan and Mozambican forces, Kagame appreciated the way they carried out the tasks of their mission and congratulated them for their swiftness in liberating Cabo Delgado from terrorists and restoring order.

Kagame also made a key statement in his address as he reminded the troops that the real work had just started, that of protecting the region against any other form of insurgencies but also to help rebuild Cabo Delgado to what it used to be.

What the Rwandan and Mozambican forces have been able to do in Mozambique is a good indication of what Africans can achieve through cooperation.  Finding African solutions to African problems is not just a slogan. It is a reality that demands one simple instrument -  political will and a sound vision for the common good of humanity.

African countries have got a path to follow. The Rwanda and Mozambique partnership is an important reference.