Mozambique: Lusaka Agreement ‘a beacon of hope’

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Mozambique: Lusaka Agreement ‘a beacon of hope’

9:18 CAT | 09 Sep 2020

Picture: Noticias

The general secretary of Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party, Roque Silva, declared on Monday that Mozambicans should view the Lusaka Agreement on the country’s independence, signed on 7 September 1974, as “a beacon of hope” faced with the challenges the country is now confronting.

Speaking after laying a wreath at Maputo’s Monument to the Mozambican Heroes, Silva said “we are commemorating this date at a time when we face terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado province, attacks carried out by the Renamo Military Junta in the centre of the country, and the Covid-19 enemy. But this is a date for celebration, a date which we can use in the search for inspiration to face today’s challenges which lie in eradicating these three evils”.

Silva praised all the veterans of the independence war won on 7 September 1974 “who, at a young age, fought to bring us this country, which today belongs to us”. He invited all the veterans “to continue working for a Mozambique free from poverty”.

At the ceremony, the Secretary of State for Maputo City, Sheila Afonso, decorated 86 veterans of the liberation struggle. These were among 916 veterans decorated nationwide.

Awarding the title of “Veteran of the Liberation Struggle”, was a recognition of their courage and perseverance, she said. They were men and women of honour “who guide other citizens through the example of their lives”.

Speaking at a similar ceremony in the northern city of Nampula, the Secretary of State for Nampula province, Mety Gondola, urged young Mozambicans to honour the memory of those who fought for the country’s independence, and not allow their legacy “to be usurped by agents of destabilisation”.

“In the current context, the best way of paying them tribute and of celebrating their victory is for each of us to commit ourselves to achieving victories against the Covid-19 pandemic and against destabilisation in Cabo Delgado, Sofala and Manica provinces”.

The attacks by islamist terrorists and by the Renamo Military Junta are “attacks against a country which belongs to all of us”, said Gondola. “The problem is not just in the places where there are attacks, and we, the youth of today, should regard this question with great responsibility. We should do all in our power to lessen the suffering of those who are in these battles”.

Gondola revealed that so far at least 18,000 people fleeing from terrorism in Cabo Delgado have sought refuge in Nampula. “We are receiving our brothers who are arriving from Cabo Delgado”, he said, “and our first concern is to treat them with dignity and, on the basis of this, to start reorganising their way of facing the new reality”.

Source: AIM