RENAMO (from the Portuguese , ) is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents opposed to Mozambique's ruling FRELIMO party. RENAMO was initially led by André Matsangaissa, a former senior official in FRELIMO's armed wing, and was composed of several anti-communist dissident groups which appeared immediately prior to, and shortly following, Mozambican independence. Matsangaissa, who died in 1979, was succeeded by Afonso Dhlakama, who led the organization until he died in 2018. He was succeeded by Ossufo Momade.
Critics of RENAMO frequently described the movement as a proxy of Rhodesia, and subsequently, South Africa's apartheid government. It has been theorised that RENAMO was formed for the sole purpose of countering FRELIMO support for the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). On the other hand, RENAMO was also reflective of FRELIMO's own splintering support base and dwindling popularity in the immediate post-independence era. RENAMO's ranks included a number of Mozambican political exiles who genuinely opposed FRELIMO on principle, including FRELIMO defectors disillusioned with its Marxist–Leninist ideology, but also large numbers of recruits conscripted by force.
With Rhodesian support, RENAMO commenced an insurgency against the FRELIMO government in 1977, sparking the Mozambican Civil War.
Renewed clashes broke out between RENAMO's militant forces and the FRELIMO government in 2013. RENAMO resumed its insurgency, citing state corruption and electoral fraud perpetrated by FRELIMO officials.
History
thumb|300px|RENAMO-held areas in 1994
Independence and formation
From the early 1960s to the mid-1970s, Portugal fought a series of bitter counter-insurgency conflicts against independence movements in its three primary African colonies—Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau. In Mozambique, the armed struggle against colonial rule was spearheaded by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which was initially formed in exile in neighbouring Tanzania. FRELIMO recruited from Mozambican migrant workers and intellectuals living abroad, where they had been exposed to the emerging popularity of anti-colonial and nationalist causes overseas. Its political programme was anti-colonial, but also anti-traditionalist; FRELIMO leaders planned to wrest social and political power from the Portuguese administration, as well as on the grassroots level from local tribal authorities. The party also envisioned a radical restructuring of post-colonial Mozambican society in accordance with the principles of scientific socialism. FRELIMO, in turn, forged an informal alliance with a Rhodesian insurgent movement, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). The Portuguese junta was committed to divesting itself of the colonies and ending the increasingly costly African wars. Portugal announced it would initiate a political transition in Mozambique simultaneously with multi-party elections prior to independence, but FRELIMO condemned the proposal. It also resulted in an exodus of Portuguese settlers, FRELIMO dissidents, and indigenous troops who had served with Portuguese auxiliary units, including the elite Flechas, fearing retribution under the new regime. in which the South African National Party minority regime promised to stop sponsoring RENAMO operations if the Mozambican government expelled exiled members of the African National Congress (ANC) residing there. This was consistent with the Total National Strategy pursued by the National Party regime, utilizing threats of military reprisals to force Mozambique into subjugation under the Afrikaner nationalists hegemonial ambitions in the region. In 1988, RENAMO experienced its only major split during the civil war, when former PRM commander Gimo Phiri broke off and founded an independent insurgent group known as Mozambican National Union (UNAMO).
While the Mozambican government did shut down the local ANC offices and its operations in accordance with the Nkomati Accord, the National Party government of South Africa continued funnelling financial and military resources to RENAMO. A permanent peace accord was reached only in 1992, monitored by the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (UNOMOZ) until its finalisation in 1994. This process went on simultaneously to the negotiations between the National Party minority government and the ANC about the termination of Apartheid policies and the transformation to a democratic dispensation in South Africa. The South African National Intelligence Service initiated the Operation Bush Talk, which was designed to phase out the National Party's longstanding substantial support to RENAMO and allow their proxy to accommodate to the new regional realities.
The peace accord led to the disarmament of RENAMO, the integration of some of its fighters into the Mozambican army, and its transformation into a regular political party. It is now the main opposition party in Mozambique. At the legislative elections on 1 and 2 December 2004, the party was the main part of the Renamo-UE electoral alliance, which won 29.7% of the popular vote and 90 out of 250 seats. The presidential candidate of this alliance, Afonso Dhlakama, won 31.7% of the popular vote.
Raul Domingos, negotiator at the Rome General Peace Accords and RENAMO's leader in parliament from 1994 to 1999, was expelled from the party in 2000, and in 2003, founded the Party for Peace, Democracy, and Development.
Activities in Zimbabwe
RENAMO forces attacked an army base in Zimbabwe near Mukosa on 17 June 1987, killing seven soldiers and wounding 19. RENAMO attacked the Katiyo Tea Estate, destroying valuable property, in July and killed three men in Rushinga in August. On 30 November, RENAMO militants burned down 13 houses.
Between December 1987 and 21 January 1988, RENAMO performed 101 attacks near the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border.
International dimension and Human Rights record
Apart from their primary supporters, initially the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation until 1979 and afterwards, the South African Directorate of Special Tasks (DST), RENAMO also enjoyed some level of international recognition, support and funding. Chester Crocker, then the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the US State Department, viewed RENAMO as "African Khmer Rouge". While RENAMO styled itself as "anti-communist", its brutal conduct and lack of political legitimacy made the organisation unsuitable as a partner, since it jeopardised the State Department attempts to gain rapport with the FRELIMO government and the Mozambican population, in order to increase the Western Bloc's influence on the region. Contrary to that stance stood the active engagement of the far-right Heritage Foundation for the cause of RENAMO.
West German academic Andre Thomashausen and his mentor Werner Kaltefleiter served as vital links between West German right-wing conservative, anti-socialist political circles and RENAMO. Thomashausen is alleged to have had close links to both the West German and apartheid South African intelligence services, while being officially employed as a professor at the University of South Africa and in various managerial positions (in particular for West German corporations engaged in the apartheid economy) since 1982, when he moved to South Africa and immediately was granted citizenship by the National Party minority government. Thomashausen acted as a confidante and an advisor to the RENAMO leadership. A related network of West German RENAMO lobbyists evolved around the Bavarian minister-president and leader of the conservative CSU party Franz Josef Strauss. Strauss engaged in his own far-right foreign policy in support of apartheid and anti-socialist paramilitary forces in Southern Africa, thereby undermining the official détente policy of the West German federal government.
RENAMO conduct has frequently been described by western authors as amounting to terrorism, especially since it usually involved attacks against defenseless civilians. The forcible recruitment of kidnapped villagers, including underage children, formed RENAMO's main mode of increasing its membership. This often included the murder of close relatives of the kidnapped persons, so that they had no way of returning to their communities.The organisation also engaged in brutal publicly staged killings of perceived traitors and dissidents.
Renewed clashes
In October 2012, RENAMO's headquarters were relocated near Casa Banana (also named Sathunjira, RENAMO's former guerrilla base in the 1980s) in Gorongosa, where a training camp was set up for around 800 partially armed followers. Previously, the headquarters had been moved from Maputo to Nampula in 2009. RENAMO leader Afonso Dhlakama threatened to "destroy the country" if his political demands were not met.
On 4 April 2013, one woman and four police officers were killed, with ten policemen more injured in a RENAMO attack on a police station in the town of Muxengue. The leader of the attackers was also killed. RENAMO's security chief stated that the action was a response to previous police raids on RENAMO gatherings. Around 300 RENAMO members had remained armed since the 1992 peace deal, despite efforts to integrate them into the army or police.
On 6 April 2013, two or three civilians were killed and two women were injured when alleged RENAMO militiamen attacked a truck and a bus in Chibabava District. RENAMO denied being involved in the attack.
On 21 June, suspected RENAMO guerrillas attacked a bus in Machanga, Sofala Province, injuring an elderly woman. The incident happened two days after RENAMO threatened to paralyse key roads and the only coal export train to force the FRELIMO government to renegotiate peace terms.
On 17 October, suspected RENAMO guerrillas ambushed a military patrol near Gorongosa, RENAMO's stronghold, killing seven soldiers, according to local media. On 18 October, another clash between Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM) and RENAMO militiamen took place in Mucodza, seven kilometres away from Gorongosa. National director of defence policy in the Ministry of Defence, Colonel Cristovao Chume, claimed that the soldiers suffered no losses and that a RENAMO fighter was injured and captured by their forces. RENAMO leader Dhlakama claimed that no RENAMO fighters were killed on the attack, which, according to him, was started by the Army, and that the casualties had been suffered by the FADM. However, reporters confirmed that the bodies of two RENAMO fighters were in the local morgue of Gorongosa.
On 21 October, FADM forces captured Sathunjira base after several days of combat. RENAMO spokesman Fernando Mazanga claimed that the government forces had shelled the base with heavy weapons (artillery), and that Afonso Dhlakama had fled the base. A RENAMO statement said that the capture of the base puts an end to the 1992 peace deal. RENAMO announced that MP Armindo Milaco was killed in the government raid. On 22 October, gunmen attacked a police station in Maringué District in apparent retaliation, with no casualties reported.
On 26 October, alleged RENAMO fighters attacked civilian vehicles in the main north–south highway near Beira, killing one and injuring 10 people. RENAMO denied its implication in the attack.
2014 peace process
On 5 September 2014 Dhlakama and president Guebuza signed a peace deal in an effort to end the two-year period of instability. The deal included integration of RENAMO forces into the army and a reform of the election oversight commission. However, after RENAMO's refusal to accept the 2014 presidential elections, problems in the implementation of the peace deal and after continued efforts by government forces to disarm RENAMO met resistance, Dhlakama broke off the peace process in August 2015. Since then there have been renewed clashes between government and RENAMO forces. Dhlakama claimed there were two attempts by the government to assassinate him.
2017 truce
In May 2017, RENAMO agreed to extend their truce indefinitely.
Death of Dhlakama and its impact
On 3 May 2018, Afonso Dhlakama, who led RENAMO since 1979, died in Gorongosa after suffering a heart attack. An unnamed official in RENAMO acknowledged this and also stated that Dhlakma had been ill prior to his death. At the time of Dhlakama's death, the RENAMO Congress was unable to fix a date to vote on a successor.
Peace deal reached between RENAMO and Mozambique government
On 1 August 2019, Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi and RENAMO leader Ossufo Momade signed a peace agreement bringing an end to the six-year period of armed clashes. The signing of the peace took place at RENAMO's remote military base in the Gorongosa mountains.