Matsangaíssa Júnior calls for a definitive truce and an amnesty – Watch | Mozambique

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Matsangaíssa Júnior calls for a definitive truce and an amnesty – Watch | Mozambique

12:20 CAT | 10 Mar 2021

Screen grab: Sala da Paz / TVM

André Matsangaíssa Júnior, until recently an influential member of the ‘Military Junta’ a Renamo splinter group, on Wednesday called for a definitive truce and an amnesty, to encourage the guerrillas to leave the forest.

“I would like there to be a definitive truce, as a first [level of] security,” followed by “an amnesty law”, for members of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta who want to hand over their weapons, he told a press conference in Maputo.

André Matsangaíssa Júnior further suggested a withdrawal of the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces (FDS) from the centre of the country in order to create a space for peace, and for the dissident guerrillas to join in the ongoing demilitarisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process.

Matsangaissa Júnior’s suggestions were addressed to the Mozambican government and to Ossufo Momade, president of Renamo, the main opposition party, to encourage dialogue. He also said that the Military Junta “was an internal party problem” within Renamo, after Ossufo Momade was elected successor to Afonso Dhlakama in January 2019.

The armed group is led by Mariano Nhongo, a former guerrilla leader, who remains in the forests of central Mozambique with an undeclared number of armed men.

Matsangaíssa Júnior is the third high-profile member of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta to surrender, after João Machava and Paulo Nguirande, two other influential members of the group, which challenges the Renamo leadership for allegedly having betrayed the spirit of the negotiations with the government.

The Mozambique peace agreement was signed in August 2019 by the Mozambican head of state and the president of Renamo, providing, among other things, for the opposition party’s armed wing to join an agreed DDR process.

The self-proclaimed dissident Military Junta is accused of carrying out armed attacks against civilians and government forces on roads and villages in the provinces of Manica and Sofala, central Mozambique, killing at least 30 people.

André Oliveira Matade (Matsangaíssa Júnior) – nephew of the first president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), André Matsangaíssa – saw Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on March 1.

The head of state said that the surrender should serve as an example for Military Junta members still in the woods, adding that peace was an ambition common to all Mozambicans.

Watch the full press conference below.

Source: Lusa / TVM