Mozambique: Government plans to hire 25 doctors in 2024
Photo: O País
The UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Mozambique said on Friday that attempts to negotiate with Renamo dissident leader Mariano Nhongo, who is accused of carrying out armed attacks in the centre of the country, have failed.
“Mariano Nhongo is inflexible and all approaches towards an understanding have failed,” Mirko Manzoni says in an interview with ‘O País’.
At stake are the attacks in the centre of the country attributed to a group led by Mariano Nhongo, former Renamo guerrilla leader, who is demanding better reintegration conditions for his men, as well as the resignation of the current Renamo president Ossufo Momade, who he accuses of having betrayed the ideals of historical Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, who died in May 2018.
Guterres’ personal envoy says Mariano Nhongo’s claims are political and have connection with the demilitarisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process of the armed wing of the main opposition party, under the peace agreements signed in August of the year past.
“It is not true that the president of Renamo did not want to speak to Mariano Nhongo. Everyone has spoken to Mr. Nhongo, and now the ball is in his court,” Manzoni says.
The armed attacks in central Mozambique have killed at least 24 people on the roads and villages of Manica and Sofala provinces since August last year.
Despite threats and incursions attributed to the Nhongo group, the process of disarming the armed wing of the main opposition party foreseen in the agreement of August 6 of last year continues.
The peace agreement signed by the head of state, Filipe Nyusi, and the president of Renamo, consolidated the ceasefire in the conflict between the parties which had persisted until 2016 in some districts in the centre of the country.
On December 3 last year, ten Renamo officers joined the ranks of the Mozambican police’s General Command, within the scope of the pacification process and, last Saturday (June 14), the government, Renamo and the peace contact group formalised the first closure of a Renamo military base
At least 38 former Renamo guerrillas in Sofala handed over their weapons in a demobilisation process that will be staggered as a result of Covid-19 countermeasures.
It is expected that 5,000 ex-guerrillas will be reintegrated into society by the process.
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