Internally displaced people in central Mozambique call for peacekeeping

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Internally displaced people in central Mozambique call for peacekeeping

1:56 CAT | 10 May 2018

For illustration purposes only. File photo: Lusa

People forced to flee their homes, internally displaced people, due to the armed conflict in Gorongosa (Sofala) and Vanduzi (Manica) in central Mozambique, have called for peace and defended, in statements to Lusa on Tuesday, the peace now existing in the region.

Their opinions were expressed five days after the death from health complications of Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), at the age of 65, in Gorongosa mountains.

“The hope of returning to my village grew with the peace talks between the two presidents,” Feliciano Matchisso told Lusa, referring to talks between the opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama and Filipe Nyusi, president of Mozambique.

Feliciano is one of the war displaced people who found a home in Gorongosa, who is now emphasising that the death of the Renamo leader “should not slow down negotiations for an agreement” which will allow him to return home.

Residents fleeing the 2104 post-election armed conflict between Renamo and the Mozambican military continue to live in IDP camps (also called expansion neighbourhoods) in Gorongosa village and in Vanduzi.

“My house was burned by the military when they entered Sadjundjira (Gorongosa) in 2016,” Luís Tantofaz, a displaced person who was given shelter by a Gorongosa family, recalls, adding that the death of the Renamo leader had diminished his expectations of returning to his home village.

“Now they must negotiate well, without being deceived, because conflicts are like that,” he told Lusa, adding that he supports his family by harvesting and threshing corn on farms.

Another displaced person, Julião Checa, told Lusa that he fled to the tents in Gorongosa in 2014.

When the peace agreement between Afonso Dhlakama and the then head of state, Armando Guebuza, failed, “hope of returning home” in Sadjundjira decreased.

But “this time”, with the conversations between Dhlakama and Nyusi, “it seemed like everything was going to work out”, and he appeals for agreement between the negotiators.

Another displaced woman in Vanduzi, Naima Bande, told Lusa that she hoped Afonso Dhlakama would conclude the negotiations, and she “had not expected his death so soon”. She too thinks that “Frelimo and Renamo should strive to bring about peace”.

Afonso Dhlakama’s public funeral ceremonies took place in Beira on Wednesday, his remains afterwards being taken to Mangunde, the opposition leader’s home village, where he was to be buried at 10:00 a.m. today.

Source: Lusa