A gang of armed Renamo members is believed to have carried out the Monday attack, in which at least five soldiers of the Mozambican armed forces (FADM) were murdered.
Speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), the meeting’s spokesperson, Deputy Fishing Minister Gabriel Muthisse, said “the government’s willingness for dialogue and for maintaining the political stability that prevails in our country will not be affected by this irresponsible and unjustified action by Renamo”.
“We are going to meet with Renamo next Monday for a further session of dialogue”, he added.
Asked why the government had blamed the attack on Renamo, Muthisse listed a series of events that have occurred in the recent past. “The trajectory of this party, the threats it has been making in recent months, or rather in recent years, the events in Muxungue and other places, the concentration of armed men in several places in our country, and the whole modus operandi, all show us that this is a Renamo action”, he said. (In Muxungue, also in Sofala, in early April, Renamo attacked the local police post, and killed four members of the riot police).
“There can be no other body that is behind this”, he said. “You journalists have been following the incendiary speeches of Renamo”.
Furthermore, added Muthisse, Renamo continues to maintain groups of armed men in bases in the bush, or even in its party offices, and has been actively inciting violence and hatred in Mozambican society.
The attack on the FADM arsenal in Savane, he said, was thus the corollary of a long process of Renamo threats and incitement.
Muthisse said that the defence and security forces are pursuing the attackers, in order to bring them to justice.
“The objective of this pursuit is to find them and to hold them responsible before the institutions of justice of our country”, he stressed. “Clearly this act was illegal, and endangers, peace, stability and national unity”.
The Sofala Provincial Police Commander, Joaquim Nido, told reporters on Tuesday that he did not know how much weaponry had been stolen by the raiders. Cited in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, he said “we don’t yet have any information on what has disappeared from the arsenal”.
The Savane attack led to the suspension of trains along the Sena railway line to the port of Beira for a few hours. But the trains of the mining companies Vale and Rio Tinto, carrying coal for export, have now resumed.
Post published in: Africa News