Mozambique: President hails ‘remarkable progress’ in disarmament of former Renamo guerrillas

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Mozambique: President hails ‘remarkable progress’ in disarmament of former Renamo guerrillas

8:19 CAT | 05 Oct 2022

Photo: Presidente Filipe Nyusi / Facebook

Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, on Tuesday highlighted what he said had been “remarkable progress” in the disarmament of members of the armed wing of Renamo, the main opposition party, on the day the country marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the agreement that ended a 16-year civil war.

“We have to point out the progress in the process of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former Renamo guerrillas and, so far, just over four thousand guerrillas have been covered out of the total five thousand two hundred registered,” Nyusi said.

The head of state was speaking in the capital during national celebrations of the Day of Peace and National Reconciliation, which is marked on 4 October in Mozambique.

Nyusi reaffirmed that the disarmament of the Renamo guerrillas will be completed by December, under the latest peace agreement signed between the government and that opposition party in August 2019.

The Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed then was the third between the Frelimo government and Renamo, with all three having been signed in the wake of cycles of armed violence between the two parties.

“Here we must confess that the climate in which we live in the villages and in the populations with our Renamo brothers is satisfactory and gratifying,” Nyusi said, reaffirming the government’s commitment to “effective and genuine” peace in the country.

Mozambique on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the peace agreement that ended the 16-year war between government forces and Renamo guerrillas.

The conflict, which left thousands dead, came to an end in 1992 with the signing of the General Peace Agreement signed in Rome by the then president, Joaquim Chissano, and Afonso Dhlakama, the historical leader of Renamo, who died in May 2018.

Later, there were further clashes between the two sides, starting in 2013, for 17 months, when they only stopped with the signing on 5 September 2014 of the Cessation of Military Hostilities Agreement, between Dhlakama and the then head of state, Armando Guebuza.

A few years later, following yet more clashes, came the signing on 6 August 2019 of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement, which is now being implemented. That was signed by Nyusi himself and the current Renamo leader, Ossufo Momade, and provides, among other things, for the Demilitarisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) of the armed wing of Renamo.

Source: Lusa