Renamo blame military crisis for delay in provincial takeovers

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Renamo blame military crisis for delay in provincial takeovers

2:07 CAT | 04 Apr 2016

Sapo (File photo) / António Muchanga

Renamo on Friday cited the worsening military situation to justify the postponement of its March deadline for the assumption of power in the centre and north of the country.

“The plans remain, but since Wednesday there have been very serious clashes in Gorongosa,” Renamo spokesman António Muchanga told Lusa.

According to Muchanga, the opposition leader is still in Gorongosa, Sofala province, a region which has come under sustained attack by defence and security forces in recent days.

“The main concern now is to see what can be done to save lives,” Muchanga said.

Local Renamo sources confirmed the use of heavy weaponry in the Gorongosa mountains in the last few days, with a local journalist reported that the bombardment could be heard in the town of Gorongosa itself, causing widespread apprehension.

“Today, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., at least 20 mortar shells had been fired ,” one source contacted in Gorongosa said.

Lusa has tried without success to contact defence and security forces in the area.

The last few days have been seen an intensification of calls for peace and dialogue by the Mozambican government, civil society organizations and diplomats. Renamo does not recognize the results of the general elections of 2014 and has threatened to take power in the six provinces where it claims victory in the polls.

The last few weeks have been marked by a worsening of the military situation, with clashes recorded between the two parties and ambushes attributed to Renamo on military and civilian vehicles using the country’s main roads.

The authorities in February instated mandatory military escorts on two sections of the N1 in Sofala province, while in neighbouring Malawi the number of refugees fleeing clashes Tete province now number at least 11,000.

Renamo is making the resumption of dialogue conditional on the mediation of South Africa, the European Union and the Catholic church, but says that negotiations will not divert it from its intention to take control in Nampula, Niassa, Zambezia, Sofala, Tete and Manica provinces in the centre and north of the country.

Source: Lusa