600 students miss exams in Zumbo

More than 600 second-graders from Zumbo, Tete province, central Mozambique, did not sit their annual exams due to political instability and the military situation in the region, local authorities announced yesterday.Jorge Vilanculos, director of the Education, Youth and Technology District Services in Zumbo told Radio Mozambique that the students’ parents and guardians had fled to neighbouring Zambia as a result of the threat of clashes between Renamo (Mozambique National Resistance) and the government’s defence and security forces.Vilanculos said that the students affected are mainly in Cassinga and Mbadua and that he has sent out teams to talk to local community leaders about the situation.The political and military instability has also led to school closures and student absenteeism in Tsengano and Moatize, Tete province, and Morrumbala, Zambezia.The renewed tension is caused by Renamo’s refusal to recognize the results of the general elections of October last year and its proposal to rule in the six provinces where it claims victory, threatening to seize power by force if necessary.In recent weeks the worst political and military tension since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 1992 in Rome ended 16 years of civil war has been sparked by a police operation to disarm the remaining Renamo combatants. However, on Thursday, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi asked the defence and security forces to suspend ('opt for ponderation') the disarmament process, and the following day, Interior Minister Basilio Monteiro said that the weapons outside state control pose no threat to the overall stability of the country.Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has not been seen in public since October 9, following the siege, disarmament and disarmament of his personal bodyguard at his home in Beira, in the centre of the country.