Mozambique: Military Junta ‘no longer exists’ – police commander

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Mozambique: Military Junta ‘no longer exists’ – police commander

2:32 CAT | 18 Apr 2022

File photo: O País

Mozambique’s police commander, Bernardino Rafael, said on Monday that the Military Junta, an armed dissidence of Renamo, the main opposition party was “a tumour that has been removed”, which “no longer exists”.

“There is no such thing as the Junta Militar. The Junta Militar was a tumour that we had in the country. It has been operated on. The cancer has been removed completely. I can assure you,” Bernardino Rafael said at the start of a police training session in the southern province of Maputo.

Commander Rafael called people assaulting vehicles on some roads in the central region of the country “opportunists”, accusing them of wanting to be “confused” with the military junta of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo).

At the end of March, Mozambique’s National Defence Minister, Cristóvão Chume, considered information about the regrouping of the Military Junta “not credible” after the Armed Forces said the group was still active.

“We do not have any credible information that indicates there is a new leader of the Junta Militar,” Chume said.

He added that a large part of the residual Renamo forces, including some members of the Military Junta, had joined the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process.

The minister’s statements contradict the announcement made in February by the Director of Operations at the Defence Ministry, Chongo Vidigal, who said at the time that the Military Junta had appointed a new leader after the death in combat of its chief, Mariano Nhongo and that it was still active.

“The latest information we have is that recently there were internal elections, and new leaders of the Military Junta were appointed. This means that this group is still active for all intents and purposes,” Brigadier Chongo Vidigal said.

The self-proclaimed Renamo military junta was responsible for more than 30 deaths in armed attacks in central Mozambique between 2019 and October 2021, when Mariano Nhongo was shot dead.

The junta chief was contesting Renamo’s leadership and demanding the renegotiation of the peace agreement signed between the main opposition party and the government in August 2019.

Source: Lusa