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Renamo, the main opposition party in Mozambique, on Monday, challenged the authorities to set up a commission of inquiry to investigate who is behind the armed attacks in the centre of the country, reiterating that the party is not linked to the violence.
“We challenge the government to urgently set up a commission of inquiry composed of various sides to investigate the origin of these attacks on the ground and identify who is to blame,” the president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Ossufo Momade, said during a press conference in Maputo.
The situation involves insecurity affecting two of the main Mozambican road corridors, National Road 1 (EN1), which connects the North to the South, and National Road 6 (EN6), which connects the port city of Beira with Zimbabwe and other countries of southern Africa.
Since August, at least 21 people have died in attacks by armed groups wandering through the woods in Manica and Sofala provinces, and Mozambican authorities have blamed Renamo guerrillas led by Mariano Nhongo, a dissident general of the party who is demanding the resignation of Ossufo Momade.
The president of the main opposition party reiterated the party’s distance, considering Mariano Nhongo a deserter and stating that Renamo is committed to the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement signed on 6 August with the Mozambican government.
“We reiterate that the residual forces of Renamo are waiting serenely at the bases and under command of its General Staff for the outcome of the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration process,” the president of Renamo said.
Renamo believes that the Mozambican authorities are trying to destabilise the party with unfounded accusations through the public media, adding that it was ruling party Frelimo regime that enabled the rise of the attackers.
“The regime applauded when the head of the attackers [alluding to Mariano Nhongo] said publicly that he wants to assassinate the president of Renamo. Curiously enough, this statement was not condemned by anyone,” Ossufo Momade said.
The new incursions into central Mozambique are taking place in a Renamo stronghold where the party’s guerrillas clashed with the Mozambican defence and security forces and hit civilian targets until the December 2016 ceasefire.
Last week, Mozambique’s Interior Minister, Basílio Monteiro, announced the reinforcement of security measures in Manica and Sofala, which include more policing and military escorts in some stretches, a scenario that goes back to the peak between 2014 and 2016 of military clashes in the political crisis between the Mozambican government and Renamo.
Despite not taking direct responsibility for the attacks that have taken place in central Mozambique since August, Mariano Nhongo warned on Friday that the centre of the country will only have an end to armed violence with the resignation of the current president of Renamo.
“If the government recognises that Ossufo does not represent Renamo there will be no more shooting here,” Nhongo said in a teleconference for journalists in the city of Beira from an uncertain point in central Mozambique.
This is the most recent episode of the divisions in the party after the death of historical Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama on 3 May 2018.
Mozambique’s civil war caused tens of thousands of deaths in the 80s and 90s.
However, despite the various peace agreements which led the country to multi-party rule, the reintegration of the guerrillas was never resolved and Renamo always maintained an armed wing, active in the centre of the country.
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