Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and Daniel Chapo, the presidential election candidate for the ruling party Frelimo, undertook an unannounced visit to the Rwandan capital Kigali on Saturday.
A charter plane known to be carrying Chapo landed in Kigali on the morning of 15 June and left for Pemba, in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, that evening, according to flight tracking app FlightRadar24. A source confirmed that Nyusi was also in Kigali at the same time. FlightRadar24 recorded a Mitsubishi Challenger 850, often used by the president, leaving Maputo on 13 June and returning on 17 June.
The trip has not been publicly acknowledged by the Mozambican government but it may have involved an audience with Rwandan president Paul Kagame.
Chapo is widely expected to succeed Nyusi as president following the election in October. In the last week, he has been travelling around Mozambique alongside Nyusi ahead of the official start of the campaign, just as President Armando Guebuza accompanied Nyusi around the country when Nyusi was nominated as the Frelimo candidate in 2014.
Chapo also visited Tanzania between 11 and 13 June. The trip was publicised on the official Frelimo WhatsApp channel, which did not mention his visit to Kigali.
Rwanda has operated a military mission in Cabo Delgado, fighting Islamic State-backed insurgents, since July 2021. Rwanda is expected to reinforce its mission with hundreds of extra troops as the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique completes the withdrawal of its forces by 15 July.
The website Africa Intelligence recently reported that the heads of the companies making multi-billion dollar investments in gas production in Cabo Delgado have been waiting to meet Chapo to hear about his position on the development of their projects. Rwanda’s military presence in Cabo Delgado has been instrumental in stabilising the parts of the province around the projects being led by TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil.
