Mozambique suggests extension of anti-piracy patrols to Kenya

Mozambique has suggested the anti-piracy patrols it currently undertakes in collaboration with South Africa and Tanzania should be extended further north to cover Kenyan waters.

Mozambican defence minister Filipe Nyussi said that a coordinated approach involving other countries was fundamental in the fight against piracy and other cross-border crimes.

He suggested that all member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with or without access to sea, should collaborate against piracy since they were all direct or indirect users of the region’s seas.

Last August the SADC formed a maritime security alliance aimed at reducing the threat posed by pirate gangs, mainly from Somalia, in the Indian Ocean and particularly the Mozambique Channel.

The SADC is an inter-governmental organisation whose goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among its 15 member states: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the Seychelles.