Ex-combatants in the trenches to protect land where the liberation struggle began

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Ex-combatants in the trenches to protect land where the liberation struggle began

3:14 CAT | 08 Aug 2022

File photo: Sala da Paz

Despite his age, having joined Frelimo to fight the Portuguese colonial regime in Cabo Delgado in the 1970s, 62-year-old Mário Luis has returned to the trenches to face the new enemy that threatens the land he fought so hard for.

“It was not an obligation, but a veteran of the liberation struggle feels the need to once again take up arms to free his people,” Mário Luís told Lusa.

The district secretary of the Association of Combatants of the National Liberation Struggle and a member of the so-called “local force” spoke to Lusa report in Muatide, a town in Muidumbe district, one of those worst affected by the incursions of the armed rebels operating in Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique, since 2017.

Hundreds of former guerrillas of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), which led the war against the Portuguese colonial regime between 1964 and 1974, have voluntarily taken up their AK47s again to fight the “new enemy”, bringing with them the experience they now share with the mostly young members of the Mozambican Armed Forces for Defence and Security.

The designated ‘local force’ has been an important ally in operations to stop the armed insurgency in northern Mozambique, with the advantage of being made up of former local guerrillas who know the geography of the region in which the conflict takes place.

“The former combatant is transmitting the message and the experience of the armed struggle for national liberation: To free the country, sacrifice is needed,” says Mário Luís, stressing that a soldier never forgets the techniques learned in the trenches, regardless of age.

The local force obeys the command of the Mozambican Armed Forces for Defence and Security and is supported by the Ministry of Defence, with voluntary membership by ex-combatants who still feel able to fight again.

“Some of these young people [from the Mozambican army] have no experience and the sound of a gun firing is enough for them to run away. Therefore, we have to support them,” explains Mariano Tangassi, another local force member in Mandava, also in Muidumbe district.

Now 67, Tangassi joined the voluntary movement in 2019 for a single reason: independence, for which he fought so hard and which would only be declared on June 25, 1975, is again under threat in Cabo Delgado.

“We had independence on June 25th and we had a good life. […] Now there are people who want to ruin everything. That’s why we’re reacting, once again. Let’s support our young people in fighting these terrorists,” he declares.

Coincidentally, the armed insurgency and this voluntary movement of demobilised guerrillas who decide to return to the trenches takes place in the province where the colonial liberation struggle began on September 25, 1964, with an attack on a position of the Portuguese Armed Forces in Chai Administrative Posti, in Macomia.

Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique, is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), about 784,000 persons have been internally displaced by the conflict, which has killed about 4,000, according to the ACLED conflict registry project.

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops, with the support of Rwandan and later Southern African Development Community (SADC) troops, has recovered a number of areas from rebel control, but their flight has led to new attacks in districts through which they have passed or where they have taken up temporary refuge.

Source: Lusa