The ManicaPost
By Lovemore Ranga Mataire
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), currently grappling with the Lesotho situation, must in the same vein focus its attention on developments in Mozambique where continued RENAMO insurgencies threaten wider problems in the region with reports of more than 400 families having fled into the eastern part of Zimbabwe.
Just last month, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zimbabwe, Robert Tibagwa, said he received reports that two Mozambican families with 21 members fled to Mutasa district of Manicaland province. The number has since risen to 400 people and the people are said to be in dire need of basic amenities like blankets and food.
Although Tibagwa expressed concern on the rising number of refugees fleeing to Zimbabwe and Malawi, SADC is yet to act or convene a meeting to deliberate on the possible escalation of the violence and its impact on the Mozambican people, particularly those in Tete and Sofala provinces where RENAMO is said to operate.
There is growing concern in the region that the clashes in Mozambique have the potential of creating deeper and wider instability with far reaching negative effects on investment and the economy.
Despite President Filipe Nyusi’s broadening of the negotiating team with RENAMO, most regional sources believe the Mozambican crisis needs urgent regional intervention. RENAMO which seems to escape international censure despite its continued use of an illegal militia and its threats to govern by force claimed it would take over and rule in the regions of the country where it won a majority in the last elections.
The move by RENAMO to forcibly control some provinces and districts it claimed to have won in the last election has resulted in some low-intensity and deepening conflict that seem to be gradually broadening further forcing the government to take extra measures to protect traffic and transport routes.
Already, some trucks passing through the highway from South Africa and Malawi had fallen victims to sporadic ambushes by the RENAMO which is also targeting government soldiers.
Given its intervention in Lesotho largely regarded as a “soft” conflict, it is equally important that SADC takes the same interest in the Mozambican conflict whose repercussions would be more grave if action is not taken to contain it.
The seriousness of the Mozambican situation was recently highlighted by the United High Commissioner for Refugees who said that at least $14.9 million was needed for humanitarian assistance to support refugees in Malawi.
“Through this appeal we hope to raise enough funds to support the efforts of the Malawian government in its humanitarian response. Malawi has hosted refugees for decades and we need to support them in their generosity to assist those most in need,” said Fadela Novak-Irons, UNHCR’s Senior Emergency Coordinator.
Novak-Irons said the majority of Mozambicans refugees are very poor with hardly any means to meet their basic needs.
He estimated that the number of refugees flocking to Malawi was likely to rise to about 30 000 refugees.
Malawi’s coordinator for refugees in the Ministry of Home Affairs Bestone Chisamile said the country was in dire need of support to ensure the basic needs in terms of food and other non-food items for Mozambican refugees are met in line with international obligations.
Media reports say that Malawi has since July last year been receiving asylum seekers from Mozambique’s Tete province, and to a lesser extent from other provinces who have settled in the border districts of Mwanza, Nsanje and Chikwawa.
The issue that still needs to be unraveled is how RENAMO has managed to sustain itself financially. It surely points to a third force, which is keen on fomenting unrest that then breeds lawlessness, which is itself a recipe for the rampant looting of resources.
RENAMO’s gripe with the Mozambican government seems to be more than just its claim of a stolen victory in Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia, Nampula and Niassa where its candidates allegedly received majority votes in the presidential elections of 2014.
The Mozambican government’s attempt to disarm RENAMO’s residual rebel forces seem to be taking long due to a number of factors, one of which is the guerilla tactics being employed by the fighters who reside in the dense forests of Gorongoza mountains. – Zimpapers Syndication Services.
