Portugal advocates internal solution to Mozambican political military crisis

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Portugal advocates internal solution to Mozambican political military crisis

6:34 CAT | 24 Mar 2016

Portuguese secretary of state for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Teresa Ribeiro said on Thursday in Maputo that the solution to the current political and military crisis in Mozambique is internal, stressing that Portugal is “attentively following” the situation.

“We are confident that Mozambique will find the appropriate mechanisms in order to find the necessary solutions to distend the situation,” Teresa Ribeiro said at a press conference in Maputo.

Ribeiro pointed out that the Portugal is one of the countries that creates more jobs in Mozambique through the private sector, adding that the maintenance of peace and stability is very much in the interest of the Portuguese, further stressing that Lisbon has elected Mozambique as a main partner in Africa.

“We continue to monitor the situation closely, and are convinced that the solution lies with the Mozambicans themselves,” she said.

Instability in Mozambique has been on the rise recently, with mutual accusations of armed attacks and the kidnapping and assassination of political figures, and thousands fleeing from Tete province into neighbouring Malawi because of military presence in some regions of he province.

Police are attributing recent attacks on main roads in Sofala, Manica and Zambezia to the armed wing of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), an accusation that the largest opposition party in Mozambique has never denied.

The worsening crisis has led President Filipe Nyusi to invite the Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama to resume the suspended dialogue with the government, but Dhlakama is seeking to make further talks conditional on the presence of mediators from the South African government, the Catholic Church and the European Union.

Mozambique’s largest opposition party does not recognize the results of the 2014 general elections in Mozambique and has said it will seize power before the end of March in the six provinces where it claims electoral victory in the 2014 elections.

Source: Lusa