Maputo — Mozambique’s rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama has accused government forces of violating a ceasefire his armed group Renamo declared following a surge in deadly violence in 2016.
Dhlakama, who only gives rare interviews by phone from the central Gorongosa mountains, where he has been holed up since October 2015, claimed the government was not taking its ceasefire overtures seriously.
The army "ambushes, kidnaps and detains" rebels and Renamo supporters, he said in an interview on Friday.
"There have been deaths," he claimed, but gave no details.
On January 3, Dhlakama announced a two-month ceasefire, extending a week-long truce he had declared in late December — a move welcomed by Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi.
Worsening clashes between the ruling Frelimo party government and rebel group Renamo in 2016 had revived the spectre of Mozambique’s civil war that ended more than 20 years ago.
Dhlakama’s Renamo is an armed insurgent group that led a 16-year rebellion and an opposition political party that took up arms again in 2013.
The death toll in the conflict is unknown, but Dhlakama claims that "hundreds and hundreds of people have died between
the start of 2015 and the end of 2016".
While admitting the army has not staged any offensive against his bush military base for a month, Dhlakama castigated what he described as "reconnaissance missions" around the camp where he is hiding.
"What are they doing there? Are they still planning to
kill Dhlakama?" asked the 64-year-old rebel, who often speaks about himself in the third person.
Dhlakama, whose Renamo party is the main opposition in Mozambique, retreated in October 2012 to his hideout in Gorongosa with 800 former guerrillas demanding a greater share of power. In 2013, tensions resurfaced with Renamo fighters again taking up arms against Frelimo, accusing it of enriching itself at the expense of the Southern African country.
On the eve of the October 2014 general elections, Renamo and the government signed a ceasefire. But Renamo refused to accept the results of the 2014 elections when it was beaten once more at the polls by Frelimo, which has been in power since the former Portuguese colony’s independence 40 years ago.
Dhlakama has accused the army of not only targeting Renamo members, but civilians too.
"The armed forces go to the villages, open fire to disperse the population, and then ransack the houses, making off with chickens and goats, which is typical of Frelimo," he claimed, adding that women had been beaten and houses torched.
Authorities in December said more than 3,000 people fleeing the conflict now lived in government camps, while the UN refugee agency said another 8,600 had been forced to cross the border to Malawi and Zimbabwe. The peace talks with international mediators resumed in May 2016, but failed to prevent the escalation of tensions and by mid-December, the mediators quit the country.
"I must speak to President Nyusi in the coming days because we are still waiting for him to give the signal for the return of mediators," Dhlakama said.
AFP
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.