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Marcopolis
The governor of Maputo province, Raimundo Diomba on Thursday urged young Mozambicans in the province to visit their nearest military registration posts to register for service in the armed forces.
He was speaking in Boane district, about 30 kilometres west of the capital, at the launch of this year’s military registration campaign in the province.
Diomba declared that, in registering for military service, young people are exercising their right of citizenship, with a view to contributing to the defence of the country, and protecting its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Registration does not mean immediate recruitment into the armed forces (FADM), he said. Rather, the military registration campaign was “a true instrument for the promotion of national unity and the development of a patriotic awareness”.
“The mission of a soldier”, the governor added, “also includes programmes of a socio-economic nature, peace keeping missions, support for the public in the event of natural disasters, and participation in logistic and production programmes”.
At the Boane ceremony, two 18 year old students, one man and one woman, registered symbolically. The Governor himself took their details, assisted by a brigade from the Maputo Provincial Recruitment and Mobilisation Centre.
“I feel very good to have registered”, said one of the youths, Yura Sitoe, to the journalists attending the ceremony. “It’s my duty, as a Mozambican citizen. I’m going to contribute to the well-being of the country. Let all other young people do the same”.
For the second student, Alfredo Afonso, registration consolidated the desire he always had to defend the country, if called upon to do so. He also expressed his willingness to contribute to the consolidation of national unity and maintenance of peace.
Under Mozambican legislation, all citizens, men and women alike, are required to register for military service in the year of their 18th birthday. From the projections made by the National Statistics Institute from the 2007 population census, the number of Mozambican citizens who will celebrate their birthday this year is estimated at 583,000.
Yet the Defence Ministry has set a registration target of only 170,000, a mere 29 per cent of 18 year old Mozambicans. Thus, as in all previous years, the Ministry fully expects the great majority of young Mozambicans not to register.
The registration target for Maputo province is 16,100 – exactly the same as last year. In 2017, the province exceeded its target and registered 23,014 people for military service.
The ceremony to launch the registration campaign nationally is being held in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, chaired by Defence Minister Salvador M’Tumuke.
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