Maputo, 23 May (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi revealed on Monday that the last military base of the main opposition party, Renamo, is expected to close definitively next week.
“We are almost in the conclusive phase”. Nyusi told the press during an intervention marking the end of his two-day working visit to Switzerland. “This week, we should start the process of closing the last base, which is in Gorongosa [in the central province of Sofala], to see if within the next month, even by the middle of the month, we will be able to make the definitive closure and start the pension processes”,
All former Renamo guerrillas, added the President, will be registered and a team of technicians is already prepared to immediately proceed with the payment of pensions that should be endorsed by the Administrative Tribunal (TA).
The closure of the Gorongosa base is part of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of Renamo armed men, provided for in the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement, signed by Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade in August 2019.
Last March, the Council of Ministers (the cabinet) approved the payment of pensions to former guerrillas, in which Renamo fighters, or their descendants, will also benefit from disability pensions, and death benefits.
The demobilization of 5,221 Renamo fighters (257 women and 4,964 men) has been under way since July 2019, when the first group of armed men was registered, in Gorongosa.
DDR activities take place in specially designed Accommodation Centres where former Renamo guerrillas undergo a comprehensive registration and awareness raising process that helps them begin their transition to civilian life.
The question of pensions has delayed the closure of the final base. The payment of pensions is normally dependent on the beneficiaries making contributions to a pension fund throughout their working lives. But the former Renamo guerrillas never paid into any pension fund.
A basis quid pro quo has therefore taken shape – Renamo will close its final base, and the government will start paying pensions.
(AIM)
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