According to the Chibabava district administrator, Arnaldo Machavo, the attacks took place at around 16.50, about 30 kilometres from the small town of Muxungue. He said the raiders attempted to stop the first bus, belonging to the South African company Intercape, which was travelling from Maputo to Beira.
“The driver did not stop, and they opened fire, injuring one person”, said the administrator.
Much worse was to follow. The same gang attacked the fuel tank, and brought it to a halt by shooting out its tyres. The driver and two other people in the truck died in the ambush, which the administrator blamed on armed members of the former rebel movement, Renamo.
According to the independent television station “O Pais”, there was a third attack in the same area, against a bus of the Mozambican company Etrago, travelling from the northern city of Nampula to Maputo, with 60 passengers on board.
One of the passengers, Francisco Fumo, told reporters there were six men in the ambush, one of them armed with a bazooka. He said the driver saved his passengers by accelerating and driving straight through the ambush.
Renamo is inevitably suspected of responsibility for these attacks, since they follow the clashes earlier in the week between armed Renamo members and the riot police in Muxungue town, in which four policemen and the local Renamo commander died. Murderous attacks against buses were a hallmark of Renamo operations during the early years of the war of destabilization.
The police have no doubts that he highwaymen owe allegiance to Renamo. “The police are not indifferent to these attacks by Renamo men and are working to make the most problematic stretch of the national highway passable”, said Joaquim Nido, the Sofala provincial spokesperson for the police force.
Post published in: Africa News
While I will grudgingly agree that RENAMO fought a just struggle (but using the wrong methods and alliances) against Frelimo corruption and oppression I now fail to see the justification of starting another bloody civil war in that country when they had made so much progress over the past twenty years, by now they should have a firm platform for effective dialogue. They spent close to twenty years doing their utmost to bomb their country back into the middle ages, and should have learned something from that era, is it not that experience is considered the best teacher? Perhaps the discovery of coal deposits and offshore oil has brought some ruthless players onto the scene, players who are now effectively exploiting the very true complaint of smaller ethnic groups that there is inequitable distribution of wealth with most of it concentrated in southern Mozambique. Last war the Boers financed and trained RENAMO, now who is gonna do so between these usual suspects USA / Russia / China / UK / France etc. The tragedy of developing countries is that there always is some fool in a leadership position who is ready to sell the country to some developed world power….
While I will grudgingly agree that RENAMO fought a just struggle (but using the wrong methods and alliances) against Frelimo corruption and oppression I now fail to see the justification of starting another bloody civil war in that country when they had made so much progress over the past twenty years, by now they should have a firm platform for effective dialogue. They spent close to twenty years doing their utmost to bomb their country back into the middle ages, and should have learned something from that era, is it not that experience is considered the best teacher? Perhaps the discovery of coal deposits and offshore oil has brought some ruthless players onto the scene, players who are now effectively exploiting the very true complaint of smaller ethnic groups that there is inequitable distribution of wealth with most of it concentrated in southern Mozambique. Last war the Boers financed and trained RENAMO, now who is gonna do so between these usual suspects USA / Russia / China / UK / France etc. The tragedy of developing countries is that there always is some fool in a leadership position who is ready to sell the country to some developed world power….