CFM WILL ONLY CLOSE SENA LINE IF GOVERNMENT ORDERS IT

Mozambique’s port and rail company, CFM, has said that it will not close the Sena railway line to traffic unless it is ordered to do so by the government, according to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.On Wednesday, Jeronimo Malagueta, head of the information department of the former rebel movement Renamo, publicly threatened that Renamo forces would halt all traffic along the Sena railway line, from Beira to the Moatize coal basin, and its spur that goes to the sugar town of Marromeu.Malagueta justified this Renamo blockade on the ground that it intends to prevent all movements by the riot police (FIR) near the current residence of Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, at Satunjira, in Gorongosa district (even though the Sena line does not pass through Gorongosa). Reacting to the Renamo threat, the CFM director of public relations, Alvens Cumbe, said “in matters of order and security we follow the recommendations given to us by the government”.To date, CFM had received no instructions from the government concerning the use of the Sena line, and so the company has not ordered a stop to the movement of trains along the railway.The main users of the Sena line are the mining companies Vale and Rio Tinto, which send coal exports to the port of Beira along the line.  Malagueta justified his threats with the claim that Renamo is in possession of “classified government information” concerning a government plan to attack Satunjira and kill Dhlakama. But ever since Dhlakama moved to Satunjira last October, Renamo has claimed that a government attack on Dhlakama’s base is imminent.