Renamo urges internally displaced people from central Mozambique to go home

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Renamo urges internally displaced people from central Mozambique to go home

2:27 CAT | 15 Feb 2017

O País (File photo)

Renamo, the main opposition force in Mozambique, has dispatched teams to urge people displaced from Zambézia districts by military clashes to return home, the party’s provincial delegate announced yesterday.

Abdalá Ossifo, quoted on Radio Moçambique yesterday, said that awareness-raising will start with the districts of Mopeia, Morrumbala, Dere and Gurué, all in Zambézia province, and aims to spread a message of safety to people who were forced to abandon their homes by confrontations between the Defence and Security Forces and the armed wing of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo).

“From the top, we must begin to reform our minds. Because we are all brothers and we believe that the truce benefits the entire Mozambican people,” Ossifo said.

Ossifo reiterated his party’s commitment to the peace and well-being of Mozambicans. pointing at the suspension of military escorts organized by the police to guarantee safety on the main roads of central Mozambique as “proof of progress” towards a definitive solution to the political and military crisis in Mozambique.

“There are no longer military columns, and people travel from one point to another without problems. This is good for all Mozambicans, because the war does not solve anything,” Ossifo added.

The central region of Mozambique has been beset with conflict between the Defence and Security Forces and the armed wing of the largest opposition party, which claims victory in the general elections of 2014, accusing the Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo), in power for more than 40 years, of fraud in the ballot.

In late December, as a result of telephone conversations with Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi, the Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama declared a one-week “goodwill gesture” truce, later extended to 60 days to allow for negotiations on decentralization and military affairs.

Early in February, the Mozambican president announced the end of the negotiation process phase involving international mediation and, a few days later, announced the names of the individuals who will discuss these two agenda items.

In addition to the decentralization package and the cessation of clashes, the agenda of the negotiation process includes the separation of the Defense and Security Forces from political parties, the disarmament of the armed wing of the opposition and the reintegration of its members into civilian life.

Source: Lusa