Mozambique: President tells Renamo leader that 34% of former guerrillas already receive a pension

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Mozambique: President tells Renamo leader that 34% of former guerrillas already receive a pension

2:24 CAT | 08 Mar 2024

Photo: President Filipe Nyusi /Facebook

The President of the Republic of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, yesterday told the leader of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, that 34% of former fighters from the largest opposition party are already receiving their pensions, as part of the reintegration process.

According to a note from the Presidency of the Republic, the head of state on Thursday held a meeting with the president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo, the country’s largest opposition party), in which they “addressed the country’s social and political situation, with emphasis on combating terrorism in the province of Cabo Delgado”, as well as “the current stage” of the reintegration process of former guerrillas.

“The head of state and the leader of Renamo considered the process to be positive, with over 74% of pensions fixed and sent to the Administrative Tribunal for approval, and 34% already receiving their pensions,” the statement from the Presidency reads.

A quarter of the more than 5,200 former Renamo guerrillas covered by the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process were already receiving pensions at the end of 2023, according to the most recent update made by the Government.

“At the same time, the socio-economic reintegration of these former guerrillas is taking place, including the establishment and payment of their pensions. It should be noted that 1,290 former Renamo guerrillas already receive their pensions,” reads a Ministry of Economy and Finance document about the 2023 budget execution to which Lusa had access this Thursday.

In the previous assessment, made on November 29 by the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi had stated that 645 former Renamo guerrillas were already receiving their pensions, criticizing those who tried to “misinform”.

“To date, 645 DDR beneficiaries have already started receiving their pensions. Those who said that this will not happen, continue to say that, but things are [different] on the ground,” Filipe Nyusi said in Maputo at the time. The position emerged after public criticism from former guerrillas and Renamo commanders regarding alleged delays and problems in the allocation of these pensions, agreed with the government as part of the DDR process.

“The DDR process continues to be at the forefront of our attention (…) There is a lot of effort not to help these people understand, and some people are keen to take advantage of it to the detriment of the lives of others,” the head of state criticized.

The “update” he made to the number of pensions allocated, explained Nyusi, comes “precisely so that people don’t become uninformed”, “lest those who are uninformed become increasingly harmed, because they create confusion”.

The DDR process, which began in 2018, covers 5,221 former Renamo guerrillas, of which 257 are women, and demobilisation ended in June 2023 with the closure of Vunduzi, the last Renamo base, located in the district of Gorongosa, central province of Sofala.

The 1992 General Peace Agreement put an end to the 16-year war between the government and the Renamo guerrillas. It was signed in Rome by then-president Joaquim Chissano, and Afonso Dhlakama, historic leader of Renamo, who died in May 2018.

In 2013, there were other clashes between the parties, which lasted 17 months and only stopped with the signing, on September 5, 2014, of the Agreement on the Cessation of Military Hostilities, between Dhlakama and the former head of state Armando Guebuza.

On August 6, 2019, the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement was signed, the third and which is now being implemented, between the current Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi, and the then recently elected leader of Renamo, Ossufo Momade.

Source: Lusa