Mozambique: No scope to recast 2019 peace deal, EU envoy tells Renamo dissidents

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: No scope to recast 2019 peace deal, EU envoy tells Renamo dissidents

3:30 CAT | 19 Oct 2020

File photo: Lusa

There is no scope to renegotiate the 2019 peace agreement between Mozambique’s Frelimo government and the main opposition party, Renamo, as dissidents from the latter party who are accused of carrying out armed attacks in the centre of the country are demanding, the European Union’s ambassador to Mozambique has told Lusa.

“The peace agreement cannot be opened or renegotiated; we are quite clear about that,” the ambassador, António Sanchez-Benedito, said in an interview published at the weekend.

The self-styled Junta Militar da Renamo, led by Mariano Nhongo, a former leader of the movement’s armed wing who has been blamed for the attacks in the centre of Mozambique, has demanded the renegotiation of the 2019 agreement and the resignation of Renamo’s current president, Ossufo Momade.

Nhongo accuses Momade of betraying the ideals of his predecessor, Afonso Dhlakama, the veteran Renamo leader who died in May 2018.

According to Sanchez-Benedito, Renamo committed itself to peace in the agreement it signed with the government and cannot be held hostage to the demands of a “minority group”, as he described the dissidents.

“We are all aware that in some parts of the country the macroeconomic indicators are still very low, but the way forward is not with violence,” the ambassador said.

The peace agreement in question, which was signed in August 2019 by Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, and the Renamo leader, provides, among other things, for the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of the armed wing of the opposition party.

At a time when the DDR process is already underway, as foreseen in the agreement, the EU ambassador believes that Nhongo and his supporters should take the opportunity to put down his weapons.

“There is a window that is still open, but it may be closed in a while,” he warned.

Things are going well with the DDR process, despite the challenges posed by Nhongo’s group, according to Sanchez-Benedito, who recently visited the centre of Mozambique to assess progress.

The EU has so far provided some €62 million for the DDR process, which is currently in its third phase, with 1,075 former Renamo guerrillas so far having gone through it out of a total of 5,000 who are expected to hand over their weapons.

Armed attacks attributed to the Renamo dissidents in central Mozambique have affected the provinces of Manica and Sofala, with the deaths of at least 30 people since August last year, on roads and in villages in the area.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that there are 7,780 displaced people in central Mozambique fleeing armed attacks in areas where the Renamo dissident group is active.

Source: Lusa