Renamo wants Nampula police to give back party headquarters seized in 2012

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Renamo wants Nampula police to give back party headquarters seized in 2012

1:36 CAT | 12 Apr 2018

DW / Renamo headquarters in Nampula, six years after the assault by police

After winning the by-election in Nampula, Renamo now wants its headquarters back. Its facilities in Nampula were seized and occupied by defence and security forces more than six years ago.

It has been more than six years since the Rapid Intervention Force and Special Operations Group personnel stormed the headquarters of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) in Rua dos Sem Medo [The Street of the Ones Without Fear], Nampula.

According to the authorities, the aim of the March 8, 2012, operation was to ensure order and tranquillity in the immediate vicinity, which it felt were threatened by the presence of ex-guerrillas in the party’s headquarters.

Now, after winning the Nampula mayoral by-election, Renamo wants its assets back. The police, however, show no interest in returning the headquarters to the Mozambique’s biggest opposition party.

“The party’s activities continue. Those who come out of this the losers are the police and the government, who are keeping Renamo’s facilities at a time when we are living in a spirit of democracy and reconciliation,” Renamo deputy and national representative André Magibiri . says.

The situation in Nampula “only tarnishes the images of the government and the police, and it makes no sense for them to continue to hold on to what is owned by Renamo”, he says.

Renamo will be in charge of the city of Nampula for the first time, following the election victory of candidate Paulo Vahanle in the midterm election on March 14.

Will the leadership of the party finally regain its headquarters? “We’ll have to wait and see. It’s all a bit murky,” Magibiri said.

Return of premises awaits orders from above

Hundreds of former guerrillas from different parts of the country were living in Renamo headquarters six years ago, police said, and they acted legally, almost the entire area being the focus of “criminal practices” by former guerrillas, spokesman Zacarias Nacute said.

Mosambik Nampula | Zacarias Nacute, Polizeisprecher — *Zacarias Nacute: “Police were guaranteeing security”*

“Police took possession of the place legally and stationed agents there to ensure public order. From that moment on, there was a sharp drop in crime,” he says.

Nacute said the corporation would return the building to Renamo when it received orders to do so from “other entities”, though without revealing which entities those might be.

“As for the problems of space occupation,” he added, “there are entities working on this, which will in a timely manner bring the situation to resolution”. For now, he says, “the police are continuing to ensure security in the area”.

Clashes on the night of March 8, 2012, resulted in two fatalities, one an FIR agent and the other a Renamo man, and 35 former guerrillas from Afonso Dhlakama’s party were arrested.