Contacts resume between Nyusi And Momade

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Contacts resume between Nyusi And Momade

12:42 CAT | 24 Dec 2019

52838481_2322154354483667_6083615424375685120_o

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and Ossufo Momade, the main opposition party, RENAMO - TV Miramar

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced on Monday that contacts between the government and the main opposition party, Renamo, have resumed, mainly to discuss the armed attacks on the main roads on the central provinces of Manica and Sofala.

Addressing a crowd of supporters in the Central School of the ruling Frelimo Party, in the southern city of Matola, Nyusi said “earlier this morning I spoke with the President of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, on his initiative, to look at the situation in the centre of the country”.

There have been a string of attacks against the main north-south highway y (EN1), and the Beira Corridor, the road running from the port of Beira to Zimbabwe. Since August, at least 11 people have died in these attacks. Buses and trucks have been severely damaged, and some of them were set on fire.

The police have repeatedly blamed the attacks on “Renamo armed men”, but the Renamo mainstream, under Momade, has denied all responsibility.

Renamo is seriously divided: one faction, calling itself the “Renamo Military Junta” has denounced Momade as “a traitor” and does not recognise the peace agreement he signed with Nyusi on 6 August. It is generally believed that the Junta carried out the attacks on the Manica and Sofala roads, although its leader, Mariano Nhongo, has denied this.

Nyusi said that in his phone call with Momade, the Renamo leader “promised to work to understand what is going on, and what is the essence of the matter”.

He promised that, in his second term of office, which is due to begin on 15 January “peace will continue to be a priority” and those responsible for the attacks “will be identified”.

“Houses have been burnt down in Manica, and we don’t know who is responsible”, said Nyusi. “But we are going after them to find out who these people are”.

“We don’t want to wage war”, he added. “But also the people cannot continue to die as if they were chickens”.

Nyusi also expressed deep concern at the situation in the northern province of Cabo Delgado where a low-level insurgency, inspired by Islamic fundamentalism, has been under way since October 2017.

No leader of the insurgency has shown his face, and the insurgents have not even issued a list of demands. In their attacks against villages they have killed perhaps 300 people, and left thousands homeless.

“People are dying, they have nowhere to stay, and they can’t produce anything”, said Nyusi. “They are being murdered. Yesterday they (the insurgents) were burning down houses”.

“We are working to identify these people”, added the President. “There are signs that internally there are those who are supporting these attacks. I am going to dedicate myself to this concern. We can’t continue to live in a country of problems, of wars, of discontent and of death”.

He told the crowd, which was celebrating the validation of Frelimo’s election victory by the Constitutional Council, that “my commitment is to work. But everything we are doing needs peace”.

“We are going to do what’s best for the country”, Nyusi stressed. He promised “inclusion”, because “we are clear that only with all Mozambicans will we be able to develop the country. Good ideas don’t have any colour. We shall explore all the capacities of each one of us”.

In the coming cycle of governance, he continued, Mozambique would prove to the world “that we are all concentrated on the same agenda, which is to develop the country. We shall remain focused on the agenda of Mozambicans, regardless of adversities that may appear”.

Source: AIM