“Fear over the death of Sister Maria de Coppi, an Italian nun with nearly 60 years of experience in Mozambique, during a terrorist attack against her religious order in Chipena,” reads a tweet posted by the Portuguese Foreign Ministry.
In the same message from the ministry, headed by João Gomes Cravinho, the government “expresses its most sincere condolences to Comboni’s family and missionaries.”
“This attack highlights the importance of Portugal’s, the European Union’s and several regional players’ support for the fight against terrorism in Mozambique, which must remain based on a three-pronged approach of promoting peace and security, humanitarian support and development cooperation,” he adds.
Portugal is leading the European Union’s training mission in Mozambique, which has been preparing rapid reaction units of the Mozambique Armed Defense Forces for combat operations in Cabo Delgado since the end of 2021.
The mission consists of 119 people from 12 countries, with Portugal being the country with the largest contingent, which currently includes 68 soldiers from the three branches of the armed forces and the GNA.
The Chipende attack came two days before Josep Borrell, head of European Union (EU) diplomacy, arrived in Maputo this Thursday for a two-day visit.
Borrell will meet with Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and deliver (non-military) equipment to support the fighting in Cabo Delgado in the north of the country.
The province of Cabo Delgado, rich in natural gas, has been terrorized by armed violence since 2017, with some of the attacks blamed on the Islamic State extremist group.
The insurgency led a year ago to a military response by Rwandan and Southern African Development Community (SADC) forces to liberate areas near gas projects, but led to a new wave of attacks in other areas closer to Pemba, the provincial capital, and in Nampula province.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), there are about 800,000 internally displaced people as a result of the conflict, and about 4,000 people have died, according to the ACLED Conflict Register project.
