Mozambique: Schools to receive textbooks two months before classes begin
Mozambique: President lists peace deal, energy infrastructure among achievements
1:40 CAT | 07 Aug 2024
Photo: Lusa
Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, on Wednesday named peace as one of his five main achievements during his two terms in office, saying that he is handing over a “totally reconciled” country to its people.
“With deep emotion and a sense of duty fulfilled, we are handing over a fully reconciled country,” declared the Mozambican head of state during the presentation of his last annual State of the Nation Address in the Assembly of the Republic.
Filipe Nyusi highlighted the signing, on 6 August 2019, of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement with the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition force, the third understanding and which aimed to definitively end the armed conflict that had opposed the parties for years.
“This peace does not belong to the government or to Renamo […] it belongs to all Mozambicans,” stressed the Mozambican president.
In total, according to official data, 5,221 former Renamo combatants were demobilized and returned to their families and communities, as part of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process provided for in the agreement, a process that began in 2018.
“The DDR process took time and required patience,” highlighted Filipe Nyusi, recalling the “risky decision” he had to make in 2017, when he went to the Gorongosa mountains to meet historic Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, who was at one of the party’s bases in the interior of Gorongosa and who would die a year later from illness there.
In his efforts to achieve peace in Mozambique over the past 10 years, Nyusi also acknowledged the challenges that the country still faces, namely the incursions of armed groups in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique.
“We have not yet been able to completely and definitively eliminate terrorism in northern Mozambique […], but we have managed to contain and push back these actions. One of the reasons that allowed this success was the fact that we combined the military response with economic solutions that brought hope to young people […] the other was the combined involvement […] of the forces of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Rwanda, in a unique experience,” Nyusi declared.
In addition to peace, during his 10 years of government, Nyusi considers that Mozambique has taken positive steps in diplomacy, with the country’s election in 2022 to non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
“The commitment we made in 2015 was to make more friends and strengthen friendly and cooperative relations with other States […] the progress we have made in diplomacy proves that we have been able to achieve this objective and the unanimous election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council is just one example,” President Nyusi added.
The president said that “Mozambique’s efforts” have been “internationally recognized” in the areas of climate change management and conservation.
The construction of infrastructure based on strategic programs in rural areas was also highlighted by the head of state as an “achievement” of his executive over the last 10 years, exemplified by the increase in electricity supply coverage.
“The electricity coverage rate in Mozambique more than doubled between 2015 and 2024. The number of customers increased to 3.2 million,” he added.
The exploitation of mineral resources, especially in the Rovuma basin, was also highlighted by the head of state as a “goal achieved”.
“It is no longer a promise, it is a reality. A reality that brings us an enormous responsibility because we must be a nation that transforms a supposed curse into a blessing for future generations,” Nyusi declared, highlighting the creation of the Sovereign Fund as an effort to ensure that future generations will benefit from the exploitation of mineral resources.
The last annual State of the Nation Address by the head of state, who will not run for office again in the elections on 9 October because he has reached the constitutional limit of two terms, took place in a solemn plenary session in parliament in Maputo, but was brought forward from the usual date of December due to the holding of the elections.
The elections on 9 October include presidential, legislative, provincial governor and provincial assembly elections.
Source: Lusa
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