Army captures aide-de-camp to Nhongo

The Mozambican Defence and Security Forces captured three men close to the leader of the Renamo dissident group, Mariano Nhongo, one of whom was his field assistant, the Mozambican President announced on Tuesday.

“After the Renamo Military Junta attacked the car of the National Statistics Institute in Mossurize [Manica] without victims on 11 December, the Defence and Security Forces captured three men from the junta in the Mafambisse [Sofala] area, one of whom was a field aide to Mariano Nhongo and two others,” Filipe Nyusi said.

The President was speaking during a ceremony to allocate patents to officers of the National Migration Service in the Presidency of the Republic, in Maputo. According to Nyusi, the three men confessed that they were part of the dissident group of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), accused of carrying out armed attacks in central Mozambique. “The Defence and Security Forces are still on the ground searching the enemy, Filipe Nyusi stressed, recalling that attempts to negotiate with the Renamo Military Junta have failed. Nyusi said the actions of this group are being instigated by “well-served people”, who have the “individual ambition” to weaken democracy in the country.

The Renamo Military Junta, led by Mariano Nhongo, a former guerrilla leader, is accused of carrying out armed attacks against civilians and government forces on roads and villages in the provinces of Sofala and Manica, central Mozambique, incursions that have caused the death of at least 30 people since August last year. The Nhongo group demands better conditions for reintegration, the renegotiation of the 2019 peace agreement between the government and Renamo, and the resignation of the current president of the main opposition party, Ossufo Momade, accusing him of having diverted the negotiation process from the ideals of his predecessor, Afonso Dhlakama, a historic leader who died in May 2018.

On Sunday, the representative of the United Nations secretary-general in Mozambique, Mirko Manzoni, said that the leader of the Renamo dissident group had expressed his willingness to negotiate. “Despite the difficulties for a physical meeting, I can confirm contact with him and thank him for his willingness to engage in dialogue and his proposal to send his representatives to begin such dialogue,” Mirko Manzoni said in a statement.