via Once again, Dhlakama threatens to seize provinces – The Zimbabwean 20/12/2015
Maputo – Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique’s former rebel movement Renamo, has once again threatened to seize control of six northern and central provinces.
Addressing journalists and Renamo parliamentary deputies by telephone, Dhlakama boasted that he would “occupy” Sofala, Manica, Zambezia, Tete, Nampula and Niassa provinces as from March 2016. He said he would not need to fire a shot to take over these provinces.
However, he warned that, if the defence and security forces tried to stop him, he would “destroy” them. No-one would attempt to disarm Renamo, he boasted.
Indeed, if it wanted, “Renamo could disarm Frelimo in 24 hours”, he claimed. Presumably by “Frelimo”, Dhlakama was referring to the armed forces of the Mozambican state, since Frelimo, as a political party, does not have any militias of its own.
“Frelimo doesn’t rule in Mozambique, the people rule. Frelimo doesn’t even have any members”, he declared.
As for resuming a dialogue with the government, Dhlakama seemed to rule that out. He said that “all channels are suspended”, and that there were “no contacts” between himself and the government.
He boasted of his own popularity, claiming he was “the only leader in the world” who could attract such large numbers of people to political rallies.
This was the first time Dhlakama had spoken with reporters since his bodyguards were forcibly disarmed at his house in the central city of Beira on 9 October. He claimed that he is in good health, and is now living in the Satunjira region in Gorongosa district.
This is the same area where he set up his military base for the 2013-14 insurrection, which ended when he and former President Armando Guebuza signed an agreement on the cessation of military hostilities on 5 September 2014. What he called the Renamo “general staff headquarters” was once again in Satunjira.
Explaining his lengthy silence, Dhlakama said that he had been “humiliated by Frelimo”, when his guards were disarmed on 9 October, and he had preferred to keep quiet “to avoid confusion”.
Dhlakama timed his press conference as an attempt to upstage President Filipe Nyusi, who was giving his first State of the Nation address on the same day to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.
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