President of Renamo only leaving Gorongosa when there is definite “consensus” on peace

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President of Renamo only leaving Gorongosa when there is definite “consensus” on peace

2:33 CAT | 07 Feb 2019

File photo: Lusa

Renamo said in the Mozambican capital on Wednesday that its president, Ossufo Momade, would only leave the Gorongosa mountains in Sofala province when negotiations with the government for effective peace were completed and its guerrillas properly reintegrated.

It has been some time since any public information about the state of negotiations between the government and the largest opposition party has emerged.

Gania Mussagy, a member of Renamo’s Political Commission, has however stressed that “the work is moving on”, adding that Renamo was convinced that the Memorandum of Understanding on Military Matters “will be fulfilled. We do not like to distrust what has been agreed upon … “.

Only after “we draw a strategy and know that our brothers [guerrillas] are not abandoned” will Momade leave Gorongosa. “We cannot abandon our men just like that.”

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Momade has been living in the Gorongosa mountains since the death of Afonso Dhlakama in May 2018.

He moved there supposedly to be close to his guerrilla forces after he was elected Renamo interim coordinator, and reiterated his intention to stay there after last January’s party congress.

Gania said in another development that Ossufo was staying in Gorongosa in response to fears that the guerrilla force might promote what she called “disorder” if they thought they were being abandoned.

Gania was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting with Renamo members of the Maputo municipal assembly about the party’s internal organisation, also intended to outline plans for this year’s general elections.

Maputo municipal assembly has 37 Frelimo members, 24 from Renamo and three from the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM).

Gania understands that sometimes when a citizen “is of the opposition [he or she] is seen as crazy”, but said the unity of the party membership and peace “are the arms” that could take the party to the Ponta Vermelha [the presidential palace].

By Emildo Sambo

Source: A Verdade