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Mozambique: Former Renamo guerrillas demand removal of Momade – AIM report
6:49 CAT | 16 May 2025
Screen grab: Chuabo News
A group of men claiming to be former guerrillas have been camped since Thursday outside the national headquarters of Renamo in Maputo, demanding that Ossufo Momade be removed from his position as parry President.
The protesters claim to be Renamo members from all over the country. This movement to sack Momade has already closed down almost all the Renamo provincial delegations.
“Things are bad, and that’s why we are here”, one former guerrilla, Joao Machava, told the independent television station, STV. “The party is going bankrupt, because there are two groups within Renamo. One consists of the fighters and poor members who want to rescue the ideals of Afonso Dhlakama (the Renamo leader who died of diabetes in 2018). But there is another group of well-dressed academics who have no interest in the party. They only want something at the end of the month to feed their family”.
“These are the two groups”, said Machava, “and we are fighting against those who want to destroy the party”.
The former fighters have already warned that, if Momade does not resign as leader, they might invade his house to force his resignation.
Machava warned that more former guerrillas are on their way from the provinces to join the dissidents. The group will then divide into two, one continuing to blockade the headquarters, while the other goes to Momade’s house.
The former guerrillas also claim that they are being persecuted and even murdered by the current Renamo leadership. One former fighter, Edgar Silva, even accused the leadership of setting up “death squads”, an accusation more normally levelled against the ruling Frelimo Party.
“We Renamo fighters in Nampula province are being harassed by groups that Ossufo has set up”, Silva claimed.
The protesters at the Renamo headquarters say that they will not leave until their demands are met. They dismiss any attempt at mediation by the Renamo parliamentary group, saying that the Renamo deputies do not represent them.
A statement from the Renamo leadership, circulating on social media, describes the upheaval inside the party as “destabilisation”, organised by Elias Dhlakama, the brother of the late Afonso Dhlakama. Elias Dhlakama, the statement accuses, “wants to be President of Renamo at all costs”.
At the Renamo congresses in 2019 and 2024, Dhlakama ran in the election for president of the party and was beaten on both occasions by Momade.
The Renamo statement added that other plotters against Momade included former parliamentary deputies, who failed to be re-elected in the October 2024 parliamentary elections. Prominent among this group are Antonio Muchanga and Alfredo Magumisse.
“They are sponsoring or financing the logistics of those who are destroying or closing our political delegations across the country”, said the statement. “Patience has limits. These are not political acts, they are crimes”.
The statement concluded with a call for the police to act “in accordance with the law”.
One problem for the current leadership is that Momade himself has not been seen in public for months, and is believed to be seriously ill.
Source: AIM
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