Mozambique: SERNIC say it is "premature" to talk about evidence in double homicide
Mozambique: Frelimo worried at supposed revival of “Renamo Military Junta” – AIM report
10:28 CAT | 01 Mar 2022
Image: TVM
The head of the parliamentary group of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, Sergio Pantie, on Monday expressed concern at reports that the Renamo Military Junta has appointed a new leader.
Speaking in Maputo at the opening of a sitting of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Pantie said this was “a sign that the Junta wants to continue along the path of looting, killing and the destruction of infrastructures important for our development”.
He urged members of the Military Junta and its “political wing” to “abandon the path of armed banditry and follow that of peace”.
“Our experience shows that the people are against those who persist on the path of insurgency and banditry, and that they come to an inglorious end”, said Pantie.
It was thought that the Junta had died along with its first leader, Mariano Nhongo, who was shot dead in a clash with the Mozambican defence and security forces in Sofala province on 11 October last year. Since Nhongo’s death there have been no reports of any armed activities by the Junta.
It was thus something of a surprise when the Director of Operations of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), Chongo Vidigal, announced on Saturday that he had information according to which the Junta had elected a new leadership at a meeting in the bush of Gorongosa district last week. But he refused to give the name of Nhongo’s successor.
Renamo General Secretary Andre Magibire, interviewed by the independent television station STV, doubted the veracity of Vidigal’s claim. It was just a creation of the ruling Frelimo Party “so that they can continue talking about the Military Junta”, thus “diverting the attention of the Mozambican people to something that doesn’t exist”.
Magibire did not believe there were any members of the Junta left in the bush of central Mozambique. More than 90 members of the Junta had been demobilised, he said, and there were none left to be demobilised.
He added that no demobilised member either of the Renamo militia itself, or of the Junta, had gone back to the bush, despite not receiving the pensions they had been promised.
Some Frelimo supporters agree. Egidio Vaz, a prominent Frelimo partisan on Mozambican social media, declared on his Facebook feed on Monday “The Military Junta doesn’t exist. All its fighters were demobilised in 2021”.
Vaz thought “somebody is interested in maintaining a permanent climate of tension among Mozambicans by feeding the leaderships with false information”.
In the parliamentary debate, the head of the Renamo group, Viana Magalhaes, accused the government of not complying with the programme for the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) of the Renamo militia, and warned that this would have implications for maintaining the peace.
Read: Mozambique: ‘Renamo Military Junta’ has new leader – AIM
Lutero Simango, the head of the parliamentary group of the second opposition party, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), said the possible re-activation of the Renamo Military Junta and constraints in the DDR “are a national concern. Any slippage in this process will have a negative impact on the daily lives of a significant number of our citizens”.
Source: AIM
Show comments
Also read
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.