Mozambique: Umbeluzi River may reach flood alert level
Photo: O País
Mozambican transporters on Thursday complained of losses because of armed attacks in central Mozambique and demanded the authorities come up with an urgent solution to contain the armed violence in the region.
“We are looking at the situation with concern because our trucks once burned are not returned. You know that the insurance does not foresee the restitution of a damaged vehicle,” Henriques Castro, spokesman for the Sofala Transport Association (Astros), said at the end of a meeting of the association’s year in that province of central Mozambique.
At stake are the attacks that have been recorded in the provinces of Manica and Sofala, in the two main road corridors of the country, the EN1, which connects the north to the south of the country, and the EN6, which connects the port of the city of Beira with Zimbabwe and other countries in southern Africa.
The Astros spokesman said that the attacks had an impact on the country’s image, which is an alternative for neighbouring countries that use Mozambican roads to reach ports because they have no access to the sea.
“The government has to find an urgent solution,” Henriques Castro said, warning that there are carriers considering abandoning the route due to insecurity and others who have already lost their trucks in the attacks.
The Mozambican authorities have held the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) responsible for the attacks in the centre, accusing the main opposition party of violating the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement signed between the leader of that political force, Ossufo Momade, and the head of state, Filipe Nyusi, in August this year.
Officially, the party distances itself from the current incidents and claims to be complying with the disarmament actions contained in the 6 August peace agreement, but a group of dissidents from Renamo, led by Mariano Nhongo (considered a “deserter” by the party), remains entrenched, demanding better conditions for demobilisation and threatening to take up arms if not heard.
Nhongo, the leader of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta, has repeatedly denied any connection to the attacks.
The armed incursions in the central province of Sofala and Manica, which have already caused at least 11 deaths since August this year, are taking place in a Renamo stronghold, where the guerrillas clashed with the Mozambican defence and security forces and hit civilian targets until the December 2016 ceasefire.
In October this year, dozens of truckers protested the insecurity on National Road Number 1, in central Mozambique, demanding action by the authorities in the face of attacks against vehicles in that region.
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