Mozambique: Renamo says closure of its last base “an unknown”

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Mozambique: Renamo says closure of its last base “an unknown”

4:43 CAT | 07 Feb 2023

Photo: Renamo Moçambique / Facebook

The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the country’s largest opposition party, said yesterday that the closure of the party’s last base, within the scope of peace agreements, represented “an unknown”.

“This is beginning to be an unknown: our demobilized soldiers are being murdered,” Renamo spokesman José Manteigas told a press conference in Maputo, denouncing the alleged murder of a political party delegate and demobilized guerrilla in the centre of the country.

Manteigas said that the death created “an environment of distrust”, and that the party could not, at this moment, predict when the base would close.

“There are issues that are not being covered under the agreement,” Manteigas said.

READ: Mozambique: Opposition denounces killing of party member, demobbed fighter

At issue is the postponement in December of the closure of the last base of the armed wing of Renamo in the Gorongosa mountain range, within the scope of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process provided for in the peace agreement signed with the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) government in 2019.

Among the main opposition party’s complaints are delays in the payment of pensions to the demobilized guerrillas, a problem flagged earlier by the Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Mozambique and President of the Contact Group in the negotiations, Mirko Manzoni.

President Filipe Nyusi said on Thursday that his executive was seeking to establish a consensus for the closure of the last Renamo base, and that the intention was to ensure that pensions for demobilized soldiers were sustainable.

“In all societies and nations, those who are entitled to pensions are those who have worked and who have paid contributions. This is not the case, but for the success of this process we are making efforts so that they have pensions,” the Mozambican head of state explained.

The DDR process is part of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed on August 6, 2019, between the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade.

The understanding was the third between the Frelimo government and the main opposition force, all signed following cycles of armed violence between the two parties.

Under the agreement, out of a total of 5,221 elements covered, around 4,700 (90%) have surrendered their weapons, some having been incorporated into the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces.

Source: Lusa