Africa-Press – Mozambique. The former leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) guerrilla group, Timosse Maquinze, died on Wednesday after an illness, the party announced yesterday.
“This is very sad news for me, because I lived with General Maquinze for a long time. He was a very competent man, a man of tactics and not theories. (…) I feel that the party and all its members were taken by surprise, despite the state of health he had been in recently,” former Renamo secretary-general Manuel Bissopo told reporters about the former guerrilla leader.
Timosse Maquinze, a member of the armed wing of the oldest opposition party in Mozambique, died on Wednesday in neighbouring Malawi, where he was receiving medical treatment. His body was transferred to Sofala, where the funeral will take place.
The former guerrilla, described as the most trusted colleague of late Renamo co-founder Afonso Dhlakama (1953-2018), was a strong critic of the leadership of Ossufo Momade, the current president of the party, asking him to step down as leader of the party on numerous occasions.
In one of his last public appearances, in statements to Lusa, Maquinze accused Momade of inaction in the face of alleged irregularities in the 2023 Mozambican local elections, allegedly in favour of the ruling party, Frelimo, and of negligence in the face of the situation of the party’s guerrillas who, at the time, were in the process of demobilization under the terms of the last peace agreement signed with the government.
On March 18th of last year, Timosse Maquinze once again accused Ossufo Momade of “systematically” violating the party’s statutes, after the party rejected the candidacy of politician Venâncio Mondlane, who was still a member of Renamo at the time, for party leadership.
“They know very well that if they run with others they will lose, that’s why they are afraid. In a democracy people are not prohibited from running. (…) Who is he to run alone? With Dhlakama alive and in the woods, the congress was always held and there were other military men who expressed interest in the position, but they were not prevented,” he pointed out at the time.
Renamo, which lost its status as the main opposition party in the last general elections, has been led by Ossufo Momade since the death of Afonso Dhlakama in May, 2018. Ossufo Momade was a presidential candidate in the general elections of 9 October 2024, obtaining 6% of the votes, the worst result for a candidate supported by the party since the first elections in 1994.
For 16 years, Mozambique experienced a civil war, which pitted the government army against Renamo, which ended with the signing of the General Peace Agreement in Rome in 1992 between the then president, Joaquim Chissano, and Afonso Dhlakama, the historic leader of Renamo, thus paving the way for the first elections two years later. In 2013, further clashes between the parties occurred, lasting 17 months and only ending with the signing of the Cessation of Military Hostilities Agreement on 5 September, 2014.
For More News And Analysis About Mozambique Follow Africa-Press
