Sweden advocates inclusion of women in the Mozambican peace process

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Sweden advocates inclusion of women in the Mozambican peace process

7:43 CAT | 14 Mar 2017

Lusa (File photo)

The Swedish ambassador to Mozambique, Irina Schoulgin Nyoni, said in Maputo on Friday that, as the main victim of wars in the world, women should be included in peace negotiations.

Speaking to journalists at the end of a farewell meeting with Mozambican prime minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, Nyoni said that the Mozambican peace process should be as inclusive as possible.

“The main message I can leave to the peace process is that there should be attention to inclusion. I am thinking about women, who are usually the victims of violence,” the Swedish ambassador said.

In addition to being the most affected, she said, women should be key players in the formulation of post-conflict reconstruction policies to ensure that the right to gender equality is safeguarded.

Nyoni said that she was leaving Mozambique at a time when bilateral relations were at a good level, and characterized by the intensification of Swedish support for the development of its African partner and a frank dialogue in various areas.

“Mozambique and Sweden are geographically distant but close as friends,” Nyoni, who completes her tour of duty at the end of this month, said.

On the ongoing international audit of the Mozambican public debt, which is financed by Sweden, the diplomat said she only hoped it would be ‘performed well”.

Mozambican authorities have commissioned an international audit of public debt, yielding to internal and external pressure following the discovery in April last year of hidden loans worth more than two billion euros that catapulted the country’s public debt to more than EUR11 billion.

On a political and military level, the Mozambican government and the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) have been observing another 60-day truce after the leader of the main opposition party, Afonso Dhlakama, decreed on the 3rd of this month an extension of the cessation of military hostilities agreed by the parties at the end of December.

Peace in Mozambique has been under constant threat in recent years due to differences between Renamo and the ruling party, Frelimo, (Mozambican Liberation Front). Between 2013 and the end of 2016, the country was plagued by violence between the state Defense and Security Forces and the armed wing of Renamo, as part of their challenging of the 2014 electoral process.

Source: Lusa