Renamo ceasefire news keeps hopes alive
Unexpected announcement made after international mediators had abandoned faltering talks with Frelimo
Christmas tidings of peace and goodwill in Mozambique seemed almost too good to be true after four years of sporadic but escalating civil conflict. On December 26, Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the Renamo opposition movement, told the media that he and President Filipe Nyusi had spoken by phone and agreed to a provisional ceasefire. A week later they agreed to extend the truce by a further 60 days. The good news was unexpected given that international mediators had recently packed up and left Mozambique after six months of stop-start talks that made almost no progress. A further oddity of the conflict is that the Renamo guerrillas as well as its parliamentarians are under one man’s leadership – Dhlakama. This means he leads a guerrilla force as well as parliamentarians who debate against the Frelimo government in the National Assembly. Dhlakama was brought into electoral politics as a result of the 1992 peace accord. But by 2009 he was disillusioned with his party’s declining performan...
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