Watch: Mozambique “under attack from outside forces” – Nyusi | AIM report

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Watch: Mozambique “under attack from outside forces” – Nyusi | AIM report

8:43 CAT | 05 Oct 2020

Photo: TVM

Mozambique “is being attacked by outside forces who are targeting the defenceless public and our social institutions”, declared President Filipe Nyusi in Maputo on Sunday.

He was speaking after laying a wreath at the Monument to the Mozambican Heroes, at a ceremony commemorating the 28th anniversary of the signing, in Rome, of the General Peace Agreement between the government and the rebel movement Renamo, on 4 October 1992.

Watch the President’s full speech below.

Although “the consolidation of peace and development are the fundamental concern of all of us”, Nyusi said, the country was facing terrorist attacks, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, from Islamic fundamentalists linked to the international terror network that calls itself “Islamic State”.

A second focus of violence was the central provinces of Manica and Sofala, where a breakaway from Renamo, calling itself the “Renamo Military Junta” has, for the past year, been staging ambushes on the main roads. The Junta calls Renamo leader Ossufo Momade “a traitor” and rejects the peace agreement he signed with Nyusi in August 2019.

The terrorists “whose motives are unknown, murder our people and vandalise public and private institutions, with the aim of diverting us from the focus of our agenda as a people and delaying the achievement of our dreams”, said the President.

Terrorism is a global phenomenon, Nyusi added, although its motivation may vary from nation to nation. He promised that everything possible will be done to put an end to the terrorist onslaught.

“As the sovereign state that we are, we shall continue to use all the resources at our disposal to guarantee public order and security”, he pledged. “The Mozambican people deserve to have a peaceful country, so that they can have time and space to build their dreams”.

“When we look at what has been happening in Cabo Delgado”, Nyusi continued, “we see that what is under way is a strategy by the terrorists to amplify fear, to make life banal and to violate human rights”.

“The population of Cabo Delgado is collaborating”, he said. “The youths in the defence and security forces are fighting alongside the population”.

The government intended to strengthen the capacity of its forces for military intervention, “so that they can give an ever more efficient response to the attacks by the terrorists”.

As for the Renamo Military Junta, Nyusi urged its members to lay down their guns and join the current process of demobilizing and disarming the Renamo militia, and reintegrating its members into society. Whatever the Junta’s demands may be “they should be made through dialogue, and never by killing defenceless citizens”.

A statement from Momade called for a culture of tolerance and full reconciliation between Mozambicans as an essential precondition for an effective peace.

The time had come for Mozambicans “to turn the page and embrace the culture of peace”, he declared. “The time has come for each Mozambican and each leader to accept the other as a Mozambican, as a brother. In this country there are no first, second or third class citizens”.

Momade called for the country to advance with a common development agenda, regardless of ideological differences. Excluding others was a useless approach, “because nobody builds a house on their own”.

Source: AIM