Starting from 5 October 2017 the Al Sunnah terrorists launched violent attacks on security forces, government installations and the general populace within the Cabo Delgado region. These include attacks on police stations, theft of firearms, violent killings and the capture of the town of Mocimboa da Praia. The violent attacks continued to grow and become more gruesome over time and by 2020 the terrorists had killed more than 3,000 inhabitants and caused the displacement of almost 800,000, with 50% comprising of children. The terrorist activities were also expanding into neighbouring states. The Mozambique security forces reacted to the security threat. However, as the government has been influenced by foreign pressure to prioritise economic development ahead of defence capacity building, the reaction force was ill-equipped, insufficiently trained and subject to low morale. Resultantly they suffered heavy casualties after
which they started refusing to continue offensive operations. This resulted in Mozambique requesting for DCB assistance from SADC member states and in response SADC deployed the DCB mission SAMIM. This research is designed to analyse the effectiveness of defence capacity building mechanisms initiated by SADC member states in reaction to terrorism in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique. This research adopts the qualitative method. The research data were obtained from informants that had been purposively determined, which were then analysed using qualitative analysis technique. SADC DCB initiatives adopted include diplomatic engagement, providing training, deploying military personnel for combat operations (SAMIM), as well as provision of military hardware, advice, finance, consultation services and intelligence. The results demonstrate that the DCB initiatives were effective enough to achieve expected objective, even though some challenges were experienced.