The European Union Military Assistance Mission (EUMAM-Mozambique) has trained more than 800 Mozambican military personnel in 36 training programmes this year, the mission announced on Monday.
“The EU Military Assistance Mission in Mozambique concludes 2025 with the implementation, in close collaboration with the Mozambican Armed Defence Forces [FADM], of 36 training programmes, involving more than 800 Mozambican military personnel,” reads a note from EUMAM-Mozambique, sent to the media today.
According to the document, the activities implemented include programmes in the areas of command and control, logistics, maintenance and transport, leadership, military pedagogy, civil-military cooperation, strategic communication, institutional advice to the FADM general staff and “Training of Trainers” for Rapid Reaction Force instructors.
“During 2025, essential programmes were also launched to ensure the logistical sustainability of the resources made available under the European Peace Facility,” EUMAM-Mozambique said.
On 9 December, the Portuguese and Mozambican governments requested the renewal of the mandate of the military assistance mission, led by Portugal, which provides training to support the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado, in northern Mozambique.
“The heads of government expressed their expectation that the mandate of EUMAM-Mozambique, which ends on 30 June 2026, will be renewed, preferably for a period of not less than two years and adapted to the needs on the ground,” states the final declaration of the sixth Portugal-Mozambique summit, which took place in Porto, in the presence of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and the president of Mozambique, Daniel Chapo, as well as around twenty ministers from both governments.
EUMAM-Mozambique is currently under the command of Commodore César Manuel Pires Correia of the Portuguese Navy and has a total of 83 military personnel from 12 countries.
In 2024, the European Union announced the adaptation of the strategic objectives of the previous EU Military Training Mission in Mozambique (EUTM-MOZ), which, on 1 September of that year, transitioned from a training to an assistance model, becoming EUMAM-MOZ.
EUTM-MOZ, which, like the current EUMAM-MOZ, was led by Portugal, trained more than 1,700 Mozambican commandos and marines in two years, who went on to form 11 companies of Rapid Reaction Forces (QRF) and are already fighting terrorism in Cabo Delgado, as well as a hundred trainers.
The mission in Mozambique was also financed through the European Peace Facility to purchase a range of non-lethal equipment for these special forces companies.
The gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique has been the target of extremist attacks for eight years, with the first attack recorded on 5 October 2017 in the district of Mocímboa da Praia.