Rwanda and Mozambique have signed a "peace and security" agreement during a visit by the southern African leader to Kigali on Wednesday, as their forces battle a long-running insurgency in Mozambique's north.

Contacted by AFP, the Rwandan Defence Forces (RDF) spokesperson Ronald Rwivanga said there were "no details yet" about the deal.

However, it comes as jihadist insurgent attacks in Mozambique have multiplied, causing mass displacements and disrupting attempts by foreign companies to extract fossil fuels in the gas-rich north.

"During the conversation between two delegations, we have witnessed the signing of an agreement of peace and security, and this is an important instrument to the Rwandan forces in Mozambique," said Mozambique's President Daniel Chapo, according to the Rwandan state broadcaster RBA.

Rwandan leader Paul Kagame welcomed the deal -- signed by Rwanda's Minister of Defence, Juvenal Marizamunda, and his counterpart, Cristovao Artur Chume -- and hailed the two nations' "strong bilateral ties".

Chapo is currently in the African Great Lakes nation on a two-day state visit.

Since 2021 Rwanda has deployed roughly 1,000 members of the RDF and the Rwanda National Police (RNP) to Mozambique.

Northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province has been plagued by a group affiliated with the Islamic State group since 2017.

Mozambican troops and the Rwandan army are concentrated in the northern districts where the insurgency has been more intense -- as well as close to the huge planned TotalEnergies plant near the port town of Palma.

The agreement comes as renewed attacks threaten the French fossil fuel giant's hopes of restarting construction on its $20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project near Palma during the European summer.

The project had been stalled since a deadly attack in March 2021 that resulted in over 800 victims, including several TotalEnergies subcontractors, according to the conflict monitor ACLED.

Discovered in 2010, Mozambique's vast offshore natural gas reserves could place the southern African country, where more than 70 percent of the population lives in poverty, among the world's top 10 producers, according to a 2024 report by the consulting group Deloitte.

str-rbu/sbk

TotalEnergies

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