Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican police announced on Wednesday the discovery of the hideout of former Renamo dissident guerrilla leader, Mariano Nhongo, but without being able to detect him, an official source said.
Nhongo leads a group of former Renamo guerrillas suspected of killing 30 people since 2019 as a way of contesting the peace agreement signed that year and the conditions offered to them for disarmament.
The discovery of the hideout in the centre of the country, in the locality of Mazanga, in Cheringoma district, Sofala province was made following “pursuit operations that began on 28 September, led by the Defence and Security Forces (FDS),” said police spokesman, Anelton Zandamela, in a statement made in the city of Beira.
Nhongo and some of his men “stampeded” when they sensed the FDS approaching, leaving behind clothes, food, eating utensils and medicine, he added, without making reference to any seizure of weapons or money.
“We also found capulanas stolen from a shop in Chinapamimba,” Muanza district, which had been attacked weeks earlier and in which two people had died, he added.
Mariano Nhongo’s group is contesting the leadership of the current Renamo president, Ossufo Momade, and the conditions for the demobilisation of the guerrillas arising from the peace agreement signed in 2019.
According to Nhongo, his group sent a letter with demands to the Mozambican government in 2019 and is still waiting for a response for a negotiation.
On Monday, during the Peace Day celebrations, the Mozambican President made a new appeal to Nhongo to turn himself in, promising him integration in the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process.
