Mozambique: Nyusi speaks on “Silencing the guns” – AIM report

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Mozambique: Nyusi speaks on “Silencing the guns” – AIM report

7:00 CAT | 20 Feb 2023

Photo: Notícias

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday shared the experience of Mozambique in negotiating for peace at a high-level panel in Addis Ababa, on the theme “Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2030: Lessons from Mozambique”.

The meeting was co-organised by Mozambique, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Union Commission and the British academic institution, Chatham House.

Nyusi’s main message was the importance of dialogue for achieving peace. “Using dialogue we were able to amend the Constitution through parliamentary unanimity, to allow the deepening of decentralization, by introducing provincial elections”, he said.

He claimed that decentralization, and the need to avoid the existence of an armed party sitting in parliament, were the two issues solved through dialogue.

Through the dialogue, it was possible to sign a memorandum of understanding about military matters in 2018. This was the prelude to the Disarmament, Demobilisaton and Reintegration (DDR) of the Renamo militia under the General Peace Agreement signed by Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade in August 2019.

Nyusi said that, to date, about 4,800 Renamo militiamen have been demobilized out of an estimated total of 5,200.

“We are working so that this year we shall close the final Renamo military base, and shall put our major stress on reintegration and national reconciliation, including institutionalizing pensions”, added Nyusi.

The final base, located in Gorongosa district, in the central province of Sofala, should have been closed in December. But the Renamo leadership failed to attend the planned ceremony, largely because the issue of pensions was still unsolved.

Renamo claimed that the payment of pensions to its former guerrillas is covered by the August 2019 agreement. The government says there is nothing about pensions in that document, and since the agreement has never been published, it is difficult to say who is telling the truth.

Nyusi told the Addis Ababa gathering that peace is an unfinished process “and so, it should be continually nourished through political tolerance, reconciliation and inclusion”.

“Another aspect we regard as crucial in attaining peace, was that we kept the dialogue discreet, away from the spotlight, and so honest between the parties involved”, added Nyusi.

Source: AIM