Mozambique: Renamo’s Zimpinga memorial destroyed – Voa Portugues report

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Mozambique: Renamo’s Zimpinga memorial destroyed – Voa Portugues report

4:58 CAT | 08 Oct 2021

Renamo members survey remains of the memorial in Manica. [Photo: Voa Portugues]

“Shameful” and “an evil crime” is how Renamo, Mozambique’s largest opposition party, on Thursday characterised the destruction of a memorial erected at the place in Amatongas, Manica province, where Afonso Dhlakama and his convoy were attacked on 25 September, 2015.

A total of 19 Renamo guerrillas died in the attack (according to the government – Renamo reports 12 casualties), just days after Afonso Dhlakama escaped another attack – in Chibata – unharmed.

READ: Peace in Mozambique: Five crucial moments in the military hostilities

Seven bodies found in Manica bush

The memorial was found destroyed on October 4th.

“It’s very sad, and only demonstrates the smallness of our opponents,” said Renamo deputy Angelina Enoque. “It’s shameful and macabre.”

Her party could not comprehend the motivation for the memorial’s destruction, Enoque said.

“This [destruction of the memorial] doesn’t make any difference to what happened on September 25, 2015,” she stressed.

Memorial.in_.voapt_ — *Inauguration of the Afonso Dhlakama memorial in Manica, Mozambique*

For her, the most significant aspect of the event was that it “happened on a day when we were celebrating peace (…) What kind of peace?”

Complaint to police

Renamo secretary general André Magibire said that the party would file a criminal complaint with the police, so that the police agent whose identification document was found at the scene could be investigated.

“In this place, when our colleagues came, they picked up the identity card of one of the perpetrators of this act. He is an agent of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique. (…) This is proof that the police are at the service of the Frelimo party. We’re going to sue him,” Magibire said just before a meeting with the governor of Manica.

Both the police and Frelimo declined to comment on the matter.

By André Baptista

Source: Voa Portugues