(Bloomberg) -- Rwanda will start deploying 1,000 soldiers and police officers to Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province on Friday to help the southeast African nation fight an Islamic State-linked insurgency.

The joint force will work closely with Mozambique’s armed forces and those that the Southern African Development Community regional bloc plans to send, the government of Rwanda said in a statement on its website.

“The Rwandan contingent will support efforts to restore Mozambican state authority by conducting combat and security operations, as well as stabilization and security-sector reform,” according to the statement.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.