Rwanda has threatened to withdraw its approximately 1,000 troops from Cabo Delgado (a resource-rich but impoverished province in northern Mozambique gripped by an Islamist insurgency since 2017), after the European Union warned it may halt funding for the Rwandan military mission there in May 2026. Rwandan forces, deployed since 2021 at Mozambique's request, helped retake key areas from the Islamic State-affiliated militant group known locally as Al-Shabaab and stabilised zones around major energy infrastructure, but analysts warn that a withdrawal would leave a dangerous security vacuum in a region where some 6,500 people have been killed and 1.3 million displaced. With a previous regional peacekeeping mission under the Southern African Development Community already disbanded, observers say the most likely replacement would be an expanded Tanzanian military presence, though that would require significant political will and logistical resources.