Attackers kill civilians near Beira, igniting fear
FOR the first time in 20 years, armed men carried out attacks on civilians in Mozambique at the weekend — including firing on an Intercape bus — threatening the country’s stability and harming its image as a safe place for investment.
Authorities said the attackers, dressed in green uniforms and armed with AK-47 rifles, shot dead three people during the spate of ambushes on several vehicles, including a truck transporting fuel. When the driver of an Intercape bus refused their orders to stop, they opened fire on the bus, wounding two female passengers.
The attacks took place on the main national road leading to the town of Beira in Sofala province.
Intercape is the largest privately owned inter-city passenger transport service in Southern Africa.
The attack instilled terror in a population where memories of a bitter 16-year civil war between Frelimo-led government troops and the Renamo rebels (backed by apartheid SA) still linger. As many as a million people died in the conflict.
Twenty years on, the country is a different place. Renamo does not enjoy regional support and its fighters are often dismissed as “old men with old guns”, but over the past few days they have surprised many with their willingness and capacity to carry out military attacks.
In the context of the country’s attempts to attract investors to exploits its huge coal and natural gas reserves, even a small-scale guerrilla insurrection could be devastating.
Renamo strongly denies responsibility for Saturday’s attacks, claiming government troops disguised themselves in Renamo uniforms in order to pin the blame on the former rebels . “This happened during the war,” Renamo’s security chief, Ossufu Momad, claimed shortly after the attacks.
Saturday’s attack was the culmination of a series of violent incidents that have taken place in Sofala province over the past few days.
It began on Wednesday when police raided a gathering of Renamo members and “demobilised soldiers” in the town of Muxungwe in the Chibabava district. They used tear gas, rubber bullets and, some witnesses claimed, live ammunition to disperse what Renamo insists were unarmed people. Police arrested at least 15 Renamo members. Renamo claims one of its members was killed in the attack.
Renamo’s swift and brutal reaction to the raid transformed the town and district of Chibabava into the tinderbox of Mozambique.
“At 4am on the 4th of April, our forces of demobilised colleagues gathered in Muxungwe and attacked the police squadron, causing 15 deaths and 25 injuries,” Mr Momad claimed.
Although Renamo’s estimation of the number of casualties from their attack on the police squadron may be vastly exaggerated (authorities claim four police and one Renamo commander died in the attack), images of young riot police being wheeled into ambulances, broadcast on national television afterwards, shocked the nation and led to worries that Mozambique was being plunged back into conflict.
“We will definitely not tolerate this type of situation,” Mozambican President Armando Guebuza said yesterday, warning Renamo not to continue taking innocent lives and to stop “belligerent talk”.
In response, Mr Momad called on Renamo members to retaliate against any attacks by the government “across the country including the city of Maputo”.
His threat echoed a warning by Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama in November that he would not hesitate to attack the capital if provoked by the government.
Mr Dhlakama, who calls himself the “father of democracy in Mozambique”, decamped to a former military stronghold in the foothills of the Gorongosa mountains in October, demanding the government return to the negotiating table around a vague set of demands, including the incorporation of more former Renamo fighters into the armed forces and an overhaul of the country’s election laws.
Perhaps more concerning was his hint that Renamo expected greater returns from the country’s newfound gas and coal wealth.
Earlier this month, Renamo threatened to stop municipal elections from going ahead in November, claiming they would be fraudulent (after its proposed overhaul of electoral laws were not accepted by parliament). These threats appeared to have been the last straw as far as Mozambique’s government was concerned and, after warning Renamo not to “cross the line”, police began storming Renamo gatherings, such as the one in Muxungwe.
In the wake of the latest violence, crack police units have moved into position in greater numbers around Mr Dhlakama’s camp.
It is unclear how the current threat of instability will affect investor perceptions. A group of multinationals are due to make a final investment decision on a multibillion dollar natural gas liquefaction plant in the far north of the country as early as this year.
A more immediate threat is posed to the Sena railway line that carries coal from Tete province to the north, down to the coastal town of Beira.
The entire central Sofala region (including the district of Chibabava, where both the attack on the civilian vehicles and police squadron took place) remains highly volatile.
Two months ago flood damage to the Sena line caused Brazilian company Vale and Australia’s Rio Tinto to declare force majeure on their exports. The threat of guerrillas operating in the area is likely to prove a bigger headache for them.