Defence ministry plans to register less than a third of 18 year olds

Maputo, 2 Jan (AIM) – The Mozambican Defence Ministry plans to register 221,114 young people throughout the country during the 2025 military registration campaign.

According to Jorge Leonel, director of Human Resources at the Ministry of Defence, who was speaking to reporters on Thursday, in Maputo, 147,114 are men and the rest are women.

The military registration, which covers Mozambicans who celebrate their 18th birthday this year and thus were born in 2007, will take place between 02 January and 28 February.

He explained that 1,690 military registration centres have been set up to meet the target, of which 1,519 are fixed and 171 are mobile.

The target set by the Ministry for this year is far below the projections of the National Statistics Institute (INE), which, based on the 2017 population census, indicate that 771,951 young people are expected to reach the age of 18 in 2025.

Hence, the Ministry’s target is only 28.6 per cent of those who, under the military service law, ought to register.

“Citizens who do not present themselves for registration during the period and at the locations indicated must regularize their military situation 30 days after 28 February”, Leonel said.

“Those who do not regularize their situation within the aforementioned deadlines will be considered as defaulters and sanctioned by law”, he added. Such threats are made every year and are almost never implemented.

Leonel explained that, in order to register, citizens must be in possession of an identity card (ID) or ID card stub, a certificate or declaration of educational qualifications and a certificate of residence, the latter issued by the structure of the respective area of residence.

This excludes large numbers of rural Mozambicans, who do not possess identity cards, much less residence certificates.

According to Leonel, the registration’s opening ceremony is scheduled for 10 January and will take place at the administrative post of Metoro, in Ancuabe district, in the northern province Cabo Delgado, and will be chaired by the Defence Minister, Cristóvão Chume, under the slogan ‘Military Census, For a Youth at the Forefront of National Defence, National Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity.

He also said that the length of time that young men can remain in the military service has been increased from two to five or six years, so that they may leave with some knowledge to create self-employment and a livelihood after fulfilling their military duty.

The vast number of people who register for military service, will never join the armed forces (FADM), which does not have the capacity to recruit more than a few thousand people a year.
(AIM)
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