Mozambique: At least 26 members of ‘ Military Junta’ give up their weapons

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Mozambique: At least 26 members of ‘ Military Junta’ give up their weapons

8:08 CAT | 12 Nov 2021

"We have members of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta who will join the demobilisation process as a result of an agreement between the government and Renamo," Mirko Manzoni said during a press conference on the peace process in Maputo on Thursday. [ Photo: O País]

At least 26 members of the Renamo dissident group in central Mozambique have handed in their weapons and will join the peace process, the UN Secretary-General’s envoy in Mozambique said on Thursday.

“We have members of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta who will join the demobilisation process as a result of an agreement between the government and Renamo,” Mirko Manzoni said during a press conference on the peace process in Maputo on Thursday.

The self-proclaimed Renamo military junta lost its leader, Mariano Nhongo, on 11 October, after 28 months of contesting the leadership of the main opposition party and demanding the renegotiation of the peace agreement signed between the government and Renamo in 2019.

Mariano Nhongo was gunned down in a forest in Cheringoma district, Sofala province, central Sofala, during an exchange of fire with a police patrol, after months of offensives by government forces aimed at halting armed attacks by his group, responsible for the deaths of more than 30 people on roads and in villages in Manica and Sofala provinces since August 2019, according to authorities.

The group of Mariano Nhongo, former Renamo guerrilla leader, disagrees with the terms of the DDR process arising from the peace agreement signed on 6 August 2019 between Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and current Renamo leader Ossufo Momade.

The understanding was the third between the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) government and Renamo, with all three having been signed following cycles of armed violence between the two sides.

Under the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement, more than half of the approximately five thousand Renamo guerrillas were already covered by the DDR, and some were incorporated into the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS).

Source: Lusa