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| - President Emmanuel Macron on Friday pledged France would help in the fight against jihadist violence in Mozambique if requested, but any intervention should be channelled through southern Africa's regional bloc. Macron, making his first to South Africa, the region's powerhouse, said he talked at length about the crisis with President Cyril Ramaphosa. On Thursday, leaders of the regional bloc SADC concluded their own discussions on the insurgency, but made no concrete announcement. "We are available to help, but within the context of a political solution which should first of all should be requested by Mozambique, (and) secondly structured by SADC," Macron told journalists in the capital Pretoria. "Should the decision be taken to launch the intervention of SADC to restore the full sovereignty of Mozambique on the whole of its territory, France is available," Macron said, speaking through an interpreter. He said France, which has a regional presence in its island territories of Mayotte and Reunion, stood ready to offer naval assistance. "We have frigates and some other vessels in the region and on a regular basis organise operations. So we could be available, and very quickly so, if requested," he said. The violence in Mozambique has forced France's Total to suspend work on a multi-billion-dollar gas scheme, one of Africa's largest. Ramaphosa hailed France's willingness to help Mozambique, saying any aid "will be offered on the basis of two countries cooperating as two sovereign states." The Southern African Development Community (SADC) held a one-day summit in Maputo on Thursday but gave no steer as to its plans to tackle the Islamist insurgency. It promised to meet again before June 20. Ramaphosa said SADC stood ready to help Mozambique "ward off these insurgents and to ensure that we return and restore peace and stability in Mozambique". Thursday's talks had been widely expected to decide on a reported proposal to deploy some 3,000 soldiers to Cabo Delgado, where insurgents have seized control of towns and villages, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. Northern Mozambique is battling a jihadist insurgency which is now in its fourth year. More than 2,800 people have been killed and around 700,000 civilians have fled their homes. The latest bout of violence, in Palma district, has displaced nearly 57,000 over the past two months, according to the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The government has shied away from openly asking for foreign military intervention to fight the jihadists. It says dozens of people were killed in the March attack and days later said it had regained control of the area. mgu-sn/ri
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