Mozambique: Military Junta leader says former Renamo MP is not his financier

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Mozambique: Military Junta leader says former Renamo MP is not his financier

2:37 CAT | 23 Jul 2020

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FILE- "We are guerrillas, and guerrillas do not starve to death. No member is supporting us," Mariano Nhongo told journalists. {File photo: DW]

The leader of the Renamo splinter group accused of attacks in central Mozambique on Wednesday denied that former Renamo MP Sandura Ambrósio was the financier of his group, saying his arrest has political motivations.

“They are deceiving the Mozambican people.We are not financed by Sandura,” said Mariano Nhongo, speaking to journalists in Beira city by telephone from an undisclosed location in central Mozambique.

At stake is the trial in Sofala of a group of six people, including Sandura Ambrósio, accused of conspiracy by the Mozambican public prosecutor.

Nhongo said that the former Renamo member had never financially supported the self-proclaimed Renamo military junta, responsible, according to the authorities, for the armed attacks that have already killed at least 24 people in the centre of the country.

Nhongo linked the arrest of the former member to political motivations.

“Sandura was arrested because he led demonstrations in Beira against the will of Ossufo Momade [the current president of Renamo],” Nhongo said, concerning an episode in February 2019 in which party members in Beira demonstrated against alleged violations of the party’s statute when Renamo president Ossufo Momade announced that delegates would be appointed by him and no longer elected.

“Sandura never financed the Military Junta. Since they arrested Sandura, has the Military Junta stopped?” Nhongo asked.

“We are guerrillas, and guerrillas do not starve to death. No member is supporting us,” he stressed.

The trial of the six defendants accused of conspiracy for allegedly being associated with the self-proclaimed Renamo military junta began on 10 July. The crime of conspiracy is punishable with a prison sentence of between eight and ten years.

Sandura Ambrósio was a Renamo member of parliament in the term that ended in January of this year, but had already announced his departure from the party in 2019 to join the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), the third-largest political party in parliament.

He ran on the MDM ticket for another term in the legislative elections of 15 October last year in the constituency of Sofala but did not get re-elected.

The self-proclaimed Military Junta challenges Renamo’s leadership and the peace agreement signed in August last year, and is accused of carrying out attacks targeting security forces and civilians in villages and on some stretches of road in the central region of the country.

Source: Lusa