Mozambique: Renamo halts closure of its last base – Ossufo in Gorongosa

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Mozambique: Renamo halts closure of its last base – Ossufo in Gorongosa

3:33 CAT | 23 Dec 2022

Photo: Ossufo Momade on Facebook

The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) has decided to suspend the closure, under the peace agreement reached with the Mozambican government, of the last base of its armed wing due to lack of understanding on “some important points”, party leader Ossufo Momade announced yesterday.

“We understand that we cannot go ahead with this phase until some important steps, foreseen in the signed agreements, are materialised,” the Renamo president says in a note published on his Facebook page.

At issue is the central base of the armed wing of the party in the Gorongosa mountain range, in central Mozambique, which was to have been closed on Monday under the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process provided for in the peace agreement signed. with the government.

Among the complaints of Mozambique’s main opposition party are the delays in the payment of pensions to demobilised guerrillas, a problem about which the personal envoy of the secretary general of the United Nations to Mozambique, Mirko Manzoni, warned a week ago.

On Tuesday, the Mozambican head of state argued that it was necessary to study mechanisms to guarantee the sustainability of pensions for Renamo guerrillas.

“We are studying a sustainable way of establishing pensions for this group of Mozambicans, so that our countrymen can be integrated into society in a dignified and productive way,” President Nyusi declared in his annual State of the Nation speech in parliament.

The DDR process is part of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed on August 6, 2019, between the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, and Renamo leader, Ossufo Momade.

The understanding was the third between the government of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) and the main opposition force, all signed following cycles of armed violence between the two parties.

Under the agreement, around 4,700 out of a total of 5,221 elements (about 90%) have already surrendered their weapons, and some have been incorporated into the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces.

Source: Lusa