Listen: Nhongo says he is still waiting for government to negotiate end to fighting in Mozambique

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Listen: Nhongo says he is still waiting for government to negotiate end to fighting in Mozambique

8:42 CAT | 27 Feb 2021

File photo. VOA Portugues

Renamo dissident leader Mariano Nhongo said on Thursday that he was still waiting for communication from Maputo to start peace talks, and denied having violated the unilateral ceasefire declared last December.

In an interview with VOA, Nhongo said that he had held several telephonic conversations with United Nations Secretary-General special envoy Mirko Manzoni, who is mediating dialogue with the government, but has not yet obtained guarantees for his team of negotiators.

“The military junta is waiting for the government to open the door for us to send our men to the negotiating table,” Nhongo said, reiterating that the five-person team stood ready.

The leader of the self-proclaimed Renamo military junta declared a ceasefire on 23 December, ending armed attacks on roads and villages in central Mozambique, so as to enable a new peace negotiation effort with Maputo, but accused the government of having violated it several times – without retaliation.

“The government has been waiting for us to negotiate since January, so the military junta has already gone a month and a half without attacks,” Nhongo said, insisting that the government was resisting the peace talks.

Nhongo also accused the government of violating the unilateral ceasefire by bombing his Gorongosa hideout by helicopter five times, forcing him to live on a nomadic basis since December.

On the recent defection of one of his generals and main allies, Mariano Nhongo, said that “many thought the Military Junta was a path to enrichment”, forgetting that “our plan is to democratize Mozambique, for the people to live in freedom”.

VOA tried without success to secure comment from Mirko Manzoni, the special envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General.

The self-proclaimed Renamo military junta, led by former guerrilla leader Mariano Nhongo, is accused of carrying out armed attacks against civilians and government forces on roads and in villages in the provinces of Sofala and Manica, causing several deaths.

The group demands better reintegration conditions, the renegotiation of the 2019 peace agreement between the government and Renamo and the resignation of the current president of the main opposition party, Ossufo Momade, accused of having subverted the negotiation process from the ideals of his predecessor, Afonso Dhlakama, the historic party leader who died in May, 2018.

Source: VOA Portugues