Mozambique rebels to fight on

The leader of a dissident group associated with Mozambqiue’s Renamo party has vowed to continue his militia’s armed rebellion.

Mariano Nhongo, who leads a splinter faction of Mozambique’s main opposition party, says he refuses to negotiate with recently re-elected President Filipe Nyusi, who was sworn into office earlier today. Mr Nhongo also refuses to recognise the peace deal that was signed in August last year between the government and Renamo’s party leader Ossufo Momade, under which Remano promised to disarm its fighters. 

Renamo rebels who have remained in the bush with Mr Nhongo after the civil war ended in 1992 have carried out frequent attacks in central Mozambique. In recent months 10 people have been killed in ambushes against buses and trucks travelling the country’s main north-south highway.

The political arm of Renamo denies association with the rebels, though it has come under government scrutiny this month in the wake of renewed attacks. Tensions have been high in Mozambique ever since October’s elections, when the ruling Frelimo party secured 73% of the vote - a result which Renamo, among other parties, disputes. 

In addition to ambushes in the centre of the country, Mozambique is in the grip of a two-year Islamist insurgency that has claimed over 600 lives in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. The Maputo government refuses to recognise this as a genuine insurgency however, attributing the deaths to conventional criminality. 

Photo credit: The Sunday Mail