Mozambique: ‘Actions of dissident general are attack on country’ – Renamo leader

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Mozambique: ‘Actions of dissident general are attack on country’ – Renamo leader

2:51 CAT | 18 Mar 2020

File photo: Lusa

The president of Renamo, the main Mozambican opposition party, classified the armed actions attributed to the group led by Mariano Nhongo, a dissident of the organisation, pointing out that it is up to the authorities to take care of the matter as an attack on the Mozambican state.

“He knows that normally anyone who attacks public roads, means of transportation and kills the population, is against the Mozambican state,” rather than showing internal opposition against Ossufo, said the leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), in an interview with Lusa.

As it has said since August, the party condemns Mariano Nhongo’s actions because they violate the spirit of the Cessation of Military Hostilities Agreement and the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement, signed seven months ago between Renamo and the Mozambican government.

For the president of the main opposition party, it is the responsibility of the Mozambican state to stop the armed attacks of Mariano Nhongo.

He went on to say that Renamo wants Mariano Nhongo to come to his senses, not to put Nhongo down tomorrow.

Ossufo Momade denies that the dissent is the result of purges he carried out when he took power a year ago following the death of his predecessor, Afonso Dhlakama.

Several Renamo executives appointed by the former president are still in office, he said.

Asked who will be behind Mariano Nhongo, supporting him, Momade said he is unaware of an alleged instrumentalization of the dissident guerrilla but recalls that he appealed to the electorate not to vote for Renamo in the general elections on 15 October, in a message broadcast by the public media.

On the guerrilla’s allegation that he distanced himself from the party leadership due to the poor conduct of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process agreed with the government, Momade flatly rejects such an assumption.

“He must return home, come to his senses, to benefit from DDR,” said Ossufo Momade.

Regarding the possibility of a meeting with the dissident general, the leader of Renamo pointed out that Mariano Nhongo has ruled out such a scenario, demanding a meeting only with the president.

“He is the one who says he does not want to talk to me, he came to the public to say he does not want to talk to me, he wants to talk to President Nyusi.”

Since the signing of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement in August last year, armed attacks attributed to the guerrilla group led by Mariano Nhongo have targeted civilians and the defence and security forces on stretches of roads and villages in the centre of the country, resulting in 20 deaths and destruction of property.

Source: Lusa