Renamo Denies Momade Taken Hostage
Maputo, 23 Dec (AIM) – Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, has dismissed as “false and libellous” the claims made by Renamo dissidents on Thursday that the party’s leader, Ossufo Momade, has been taken prisoner by guerrillas dissatisfied with the current stage of the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) of the former Renamo militia.
Vitano Singano, who heads a group calling itself “Democratic Renamo”, claimed that the fighters who have taken Momade hostage are refusing to join the DDR and are demanding “explanations” from Momade.
Singano said this was the real reason why it was impossible to dismantle Renamo’s final military base in Gorongosa district, in the central province of Sofala, on Monday, as planned.
But Antonio Timba, head of the Renamo finances, told the “Voice of America” radio station “this information is not true. It’s libellous. A few moments ago (at about 10.00 on Thursday) I was in contact with President Ossufo”.
He insisted that Momade “is in the bush of the Gorongosa mountain where he went to deal with the question of the DDR”.
Singano attacked the way Momade has handled the negotiations over the DDR with President Filipe Nyusi. He claimed that the list of fighters to be demobilised, which Renamo has delivered to the government, “are all ghost guerillas”, and the list should therefore be withdrawn.
On Wednesday, speaking at an end-of-year reception, Nyusi admitted there were problems with the Renamo lists of former guerrillas who should be recruited into the police. Renamo had submitted, and then withdrawn, two lists, and the government was now working with Renamo’s third list.
(AIM)
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