Analysts say Renamo’s military wing demanded Ossufo Momade’s move to Gorongosa

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Analysts say Renamo’s military wing demanded Ossufo Momade’s move to Gorongosa

1:58 CAT | 06 Jun 2018

Photo: Voa

Some Mozambican analysts believe that the incumbent President of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, was being based in Gorongosa in the centre of the country as a way of putting pressure on the government to come to an agreement on demilitarisation.

After Afonso Dhlakama’s death, word in a few Renamo circles was that, the first time the interim president went to Gorongosa, he would not return to Maputo, for strategic reasons.

Even before Afonso Dhlakama’s funeral, Renamo guerrillas warned that the new leader of the party should stay in Gorongosa until the conclusion of the negotiation process with the government.

Afonso Dhlakama had taken refuge in Gorongosa for alleged lack of security in Maputo and other Mozambican cities, and some claim that this may also be Momade’s main concern.

But analyst Fernando Mbanze says that “this has nothing to do with security issues, but with the need to maintain military pressure on the government until the end of the negotiation process”.

Analyst Armando Nenane however believes that Momade was pressured into moving to Gorongosa by the guerrillas, signalling that the military wing is the one that heads Renamo and urgently wants to close the dossier on military matters.

In his opinion, “the people who are now clamouring for inclusion at the Renamo level are not the diplomatic wing or the political wing, but the military wing”.

“It makes sense that Renamo’s leadership be where the military is, so that it can more closely address the process of its integration into the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces,” Nemane says.

The military wing’s agenda is reflected in last weekend’s Renamo Political Commission statement, which “recommended that the dossier on military matters be swiftly closed”.

Source: Voa Portugues