Mozambique: Momade denies divisions within Renamo – AIM report

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Mozambique: Momade denies divisions within Renamo – AIM report

9:16 CAT | 03 Sep 2020

File photo: Ossufo Momade / Facebok page

The leader of Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, Ossufo Momade, has denied reports that the party is weakened and divided.

Interviewed by the German agency, DW Africa, Momade said “within the party we don’t feel that Renamo is divided. We feel that everything we are planning is happening. Our activities are taking place. And we still have popular impact.”

“Were it not for the Covid-19 pandemic, I could go from here to Sofala province, where I would have a good reception”, he continued. “I could go to Zambezia, and there would be a greater participation of the public”.

“Where do people get this information that Renamo is divided?”, he asked. “We are not divided, and there is cohesion in Renamo. We are continuing to work, and we shall surprise people in 2023 (the date of the next municipal elections)”.

Momade expressed no interest in any dialogue with Mariano Nhongo, the dissident who set up the self-styled “Renamo Military Junta”, which has been carrying out lethal ambushes on the roads in the central provinces of Manica and Sofala.

The Defence and Security Commission of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, has encouraged the Renamo leadership to speak with the Junta, in order to persuade them to lay down their weapons and take part in the current demobilisation.

But neither side seems interested in such a dialogue. “Nhongo wasn’t expelled from Renamo”, recalled Momade. “He abandoned the base where he was living out of his own free will”. Nhongo was thus “a deserter. There’s no other name for a soldier who leaves his base”.

Momade recalled that Nhongo had made various accusations against him which all turned out to be untrue, and accused him of restricting the Military Junta’s attacks to civilian targets.

“Have you ever seen Nhongo attack a military target?”, he asked. “His targets are civilian trucks and buses. This means he is creating problems for the Mozambican population”.

Nhongo himself was much more strident, telling DW Africa that both Momade and Renamo general secretary Andre Majibire are “traitors”, who were working together “to destroy Renamo”.

“We don’t have any more patience to beg for favours from traitors”, said Nhongo. “Nobody from the Military Junta will speak with Majibire”.

The Junta’s attacks show no sign of ending. The most recent ambush was on Sunday when two passengers were injured in an attack on a bus travelling along the main north-south highway in Sofala, in the area near the boundary between Chibabava and Machanga districts.

Source: AIM