Renamo members kidnapped in Manica remain missing – Mozambique

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Renamo members kidnapped in Manica remain missing – Mozambique

2:52 CAT | 09 Mar 2017

Voa (File photo) The opposition party leader in Manica says headquarters had been turned into a home for Frelimo officials

The two members of Renamo, kidnapped on Monday while trying to reopen the party’s headquarters in Honde, Báruè district, in the Mozambican province of Manica, are still missing and no information about them has been forthcoming.

Sofrimento Matequenha, a Renamo provincial political delegate in Manica, said investigations had not produced any new leads.

“We went to the graveyard where they said the bodies were, but they were not there, and it would be useless to continue to search a whole bush in vain, without concrete clues,” Matequenha said, condemning the provocation that culminated in the disappearance of the party members.

The local delegate and a Renamo district representative were kidnapped in the epicenter of the renewed 2016 military-political conflict between the government and Renamo, as they were attempting to hear reopen their party headquarters, which had been seized by members of the ruling Frelimo party.

Matequenha has no doubt that their abduction was linked to the “political ignorance” of the members of Frelimo, whom he accused of being the instigators of the incident that ended in the beating and disappearance of the two party members.

“They usurped and destroyed our headquarters in the time of confusion, and built their own house there and hoisted the Frelimo flag over it, so when they saw the Renamo brigade coming to take the place back, that was it, there was confusion,” Matequenha said.

Police have yet to comment on the incident but have promised clarification.

Renamo resumed normal political activities with the reopening of its headquarters in the central province of Manica, destroyed by fire in February after the start of the second 60-day truce. The truce has now been extended for a further 60 days by order of Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, to give room for peace talks with the government.

Source: Voa Portugues