Mozambique: ‘Renamo Military Junta’ has new leader – AIM

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Mozambique: ‘Renamo Military Junta’ has new leader – AIM

9:03 CAT | 28 Feb 2022

FILE PHOTO - Director of Operations of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), Chongo Vidigal. [File photo: DW]

The self-styled “Renamo Military Junta”, a breakaway from Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, now has a new leader, according to the Director of Operations of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), Chongo Vidigal.

The Junta was set up to oppose Ossufo Momade, the Renamo leader elected at a party congress in January 2019. The Junta’s first leader, Mariano Nhongo, repeatedly called Momade “a traitor” and refused to recognize the peace agreement he had signed with President Filipe Nyusi in August 2019.

Nhongo’s men staged a series of lethal ambushes against vehicles on the main roads in the central provinces of Manica and Sofala, but, bit by bit, his followers deserted, with many of them accepting the demobilization offered by the government.

Nhongo died in a clash with government forces in Cheringoma district, in Sofala, on 11 October last year. Since then there have been no further attacks attributed to the Junta.

It was widely believed that Nhongo’s death would mean the end of the Junta, but Vidigal told reporters on Saturday that the Junta had elected a new leadership at a meeting in the bush of Gorongosa district last week.

But he refused 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”.

Vidigal also claimed that the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) of former members of the Renamo militia is making progress, and the two sides have pledged to comply with their responsibilities.

“The steps are being taken”, he said. “It’s true that sometimes that have been lapses in complying with deadlines, but we forecast a good conclusion so that peace is achieved in the central provinces”.

Speaking in Maputo at the ceremonies marking the opening of the 2022 Military Operational Year, Defence Minister Cristovao Chume guaranteed that the defence and security forces are continuing to pursue terrorists in the Northern Operation Theatre (essentially Cabo Delgado province, plagued by islamist terrorism since October 2017).

“We are convinced that this year the FADM will continue to strengthen its combat readiness, as well as its capacity for intervention, not only in the Northern Operational Theatre, but throughout the national territory”, said Chume.

He insisted that all military commanders must implement the commitments they have given, and “must make their subordinates aware so that they too identify with those commitments”.

Source: AIM