“It was important to be here because, in good times and in bad, friends always come together,” Filipe Nyusi told the media the day after participating in the inauguration of Paul Kagame for a fourth term as president of Rwanda.

President Nyusi stressed that the participation in the ceremony of more than 20 heads of state, including the President of Angola, João Lourenço, demonstrated the respect and admiration in which that African country was held.

“It was clear that the people of Rwanda are not distracted by agendas; their agenda is focused on progress and nothing else. A renovated stadium with 20,000 to 45,000 people was packed [for the inauguration ceremony on Sunday] and the population waited from the beginning until the last moment. So it was clear that it was a celebration for all of them,” Nyusi said.

Asked about Rwanda’s military assistance in combating the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique, President Nyusi called it an instance of positive cooperation. “Since we have been working together, we have been resolving problems in that area and now that SAMIM [military mission of southern African countries] has left, we are continuing. One good thing about this force is the fact that they have healthy relations with local communities,” the president said.

After the exit of the SAMIM mission, concluded at the beginning of July, contingents of the Rwandan military forces and the Mozambique Defence and Security Force in Cabo Delgado were reinforced, he added.

A force of more than 2,000 Rwandan soldiers, reinforced since April, is fighting the terrorist groups that have been operating for almost seven years in Mozambique’s northern province, notably, following an agreement between the two governments, protecting the area where the French major TotalEnergies has a natural gas project.

The results of the elections held on 15 July in Rwanda confirmed the expected victory of Paul Kagamé, in power since 2000, with 99% of the vote.

Kagamé’s party has led the country since it took power in 1994 as a rebel group, after overthrowing the extremist Hutu government that triggered that year’s genocide, in which around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.