Mozambique: Military registration begins – Watch

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Mozambique: Military registration begins – Watch

10:10 CAT | 05 Jan 2021

Photo: Miramar

Military registration for Mozambicans aged 18 and above began throughout the country on Monday and is scheduled to last until 28 February.

According to a press release from the Defence Ministry, it is hoped that more than 200,000 young Mozambicans will register for military service.

As happens every year, this target is extremely modest. The law on military service states that all Mozambican citizens, of both sexes, must register in the year of their 18th birthday. According to the projections from the 2017 population census, published on the web page of the National Statistics Institute (INE), slightly more than 651,000 Mozambicans will reach the age of 18 this year.

In other words, the Defence Ministry fully expects only 31 per cent of 18 year olds to register for military service.

Furthermore, all those who should have registered in previous years, but did not do so, should register now, unless they are over 35 years old. If they are included in the figures, then many millions of young Mozambicans ought to register over the next two months.

The Mozambican armed forces (FADM) are relatively small, and there is no way that the FADM can recruit hundreds of thousands of people a year. Each year a few thousand are recruited, after passing fitness tests.

The official launch ceremony for the 2021 military registration campaign will take place on Wednesday in Morrumbala district, in the central province of Zambezia.