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Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday urged the population of the coastal district of Maganja da Costa, in the central province of Zambezia, to contribute to the search for effective peace by increasing their levels of food production.
He was addressing a rally in Maganja da Costa town, his first stop on a three day working visit to Zambezia, intended to assess implementation so far of the government’s five year programme for the 2015-2019 period.
“We shall continue to work for peace, but we must increase production”, stressed Nyusi. Greater production, he said, will improve the country’s food security and boost the income of peasant farmers. It would also reduce the need to spend scarce foreign currency on importing food.
He recalled the food crisis arising from the severe drought of 2015-16, which plunged some 269,000 people into hunger in 16 of the 22 districts of Zambezia. On top of the drought came the clashes between gunmen of the rebel movement Renamo and the government’s defence and security forces.
The low-level Renamo insurrection affected both production, and the movement of goods on the roads of central Mozambique. However the recent rains, and the truce declared by Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama have revived hope.
Nyusi urged the population of Maganja da Costa to commit themselves to peace efforts. It was a difficult process, he said, but with tolerance and reconciliation, “it is possible to change direction”.
He denied that there was anything heroic about his recent visit to the bush of Gorongosa district, in Sofala province, where he met face to face with Dhlakama for the first time since February 2015. Nyusi regarded that visit as a duty dictated by the need to restore peace.
“The person who is waging war is among us, and if it is possible to solve his concern, why not listen to him and then trace out the paths to peace?”, he asked. Nyusi wanted a definitive end to hostilities, and not just a series of truces.
Dialogue, he said, is knowing how to listen to the other side. “Often what we think is not the most correct approach”, the President added, “and so, when dialogue flows, there are more possibilities of undoing eventual disagreements”.
Before the rally, Nyusi visited an agricultural fair, exhibiting the district’s potential in crops such as rice, maize, cassava, beans, sweet potato, coconuts, groundnuts, cashew, sesame and vegetables. The district possesses 18 agricultural Service Provision Centres, which can hire out tractors and other equipment, as part of the government’s drive for agricultural mechanisation.
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