via Latest: Renamo leader alive after convoy attack | The Herald September 13, 2015
MAPUTO – Mozambique’s opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama escaped unhurt when his convoy was hit by gunfire while returning from a rally in the central Manica province in what police said was crossfire.
Police said the bullets that struck three cars in his convoy were not aimed at the former rebel Renamo commander’s convoy but targeted a motorist who had refused to stop at a road block.
“Police ordered a car (not linked to the Renamo convoy) to stop for a routine check. But the car didn’t stop, so the police opened fire,” Manica province police inspector Manuel Loureno told AFP.
“However, as the Renamo convoy was passing by they received some bullets,” said Lourenco.
But Dhlakama believes the attack was deliberately targeted at him.
“This was a planned attack,” Dhlakama declared at a press conference held in Chimoio a few hours later, according to local media.
He said Mozambique’s ruling party “Frelimo is behind it.”
Police refused to give further details of the attack.
Dhlakama’s car was not hit, but three of those that were following his were struck, leaving three wounded, according a local journalist who witnessed the attack.
Renamo waged a 16-year civil war against the formerly marxist Frelimo government. That conflict ended in 1992 after an estimated one million people had been killed.
After a 20-year hiatus, Renamo supporters began a low-level insurgency in late 2013, attacking buses and cars on the main north-south highway after government forces raided Dhlakama’s bush hide out.
A deal was reached last year to end that second, less bloody, conflict.
Despite the September 2014 ceasefire, low key skirmishes between Renamo and the military have resumed in recent months in the central coal-rich Tete province, forcing some people to flee to neighbouring Malawi, according to local reports. – AFP
COMMENTS
Oh dear, Chimoio again.
What difference is it between the government and the so called rebels. Surely this is what I can say Democracy full of mistrust. The Mozambican government doesn’t trust Dhlakama that is why they took out the government Police/Guards from guiding Dhlakama. They truly want to eliminate him. As from the time when the peace agreement was signed Dhlakama and his men didn’t attack anyone but himself Dhlakama and his man are targeted and attacked. Just look in Tete province mostly in Chibayeni community in Moatize District the government forces attacked people and burned their Duras claiming that they were Renamo forces. Peace it the slogan which doesn’t work in Mozambican government.