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File photo: Noticia de Defesa Moçambique
The Mozambican Minister of Defence, Cristovao Chume, on Thursday denied that the self-styled “Renamo Military Junta” has been reactivated and has a new leader.
Speaking in the central city of Beira, he publicly slapped down one of his subordinates, the head of operations of the armed forces (FADM), Chongo Vidigal, who claimed in late February that the Junta had held a meeting somewhere in the bush of the central district of Gorongosa to elect a replacement for Mariano Nhongo, the junta’s founder, who died in a clash with government forces last October.
It was widely believed that Nhongo’s death would mean the end of the Junta, but Vidigal told reporters that the Junta had elected a replacement leader. He undermined his own claim by refusing to give the names of the new Junta leadership. “I will not be able to go into details about the names”, Vidigal said, “but I have information according to which the Military Junta has promoted new cadres to its leadership”.
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This claim had clearly irritated the Minister. Chume declared “as far as we know, there is no new leader of the Renamo Military Junta, indicated or elected. Once again, we have no credible information that the Junta has a new leader”.
He described such claims as nothing more than “speculation” which seeks to disturb the central zone of the country.
Most of the Renamo residual forces, Chume added, had joined the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) of the Renamo militia, including some who had once been supporters of the military junta.
He could see no willingness on the part of those signing up for demobilisation to go back to war. Indeed, many of the newly demobilized men had left the old Renamo bases and had gone back to their original homes.
Nhongo had set up the Junta in opposition to Renamo leader Ossufo Momade, whom he called “a traitor”. He denounced the peace agreement signed in August 2019 between Momade and President Filipe Nyusi, and demanded that it be renegotiated.
The Junta waged low level warfare, consisting mainly of ambushes against vehicles using the main roads in the central provinces of Manica and Sofala, in which several dozen people were killed.
But even before Nhongo’s death, his campaign seemed to have fizzled out. There have been no Junta attacks for many months, and the central region seems calm.
ALSO READ: Mozambique: ‘Renamo Military Junta’ has new leader – AIM
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