Renamo, guerrilla organization that sought to overthrow the government of Mozambique beginning in the late 1970s and later functioned as a political party.

Renamo was formed in 1976 by white Rhodesian officers who were seeking a way to keep newly independent Mozambique from supporting the black guerrillas trying to overthrow the white Rhodesian government. These officers recruited disaffected guerrillas who had belonged to Mozambique’s successful independence movement, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo). The sponsorship of Renamo was soon taken over by the South African armed forces. Renamo opposed the Marxist-leaning Mozambican central government, and Renamo’s guerrillas sought to disrupt the nation’s economy and infrastructure by cutting railway and power lines, destroying roads and bridges, and sabotaging oil-storage depots. In their raids on towns and villages, the guerrillas sometimes engaged in the wholesale massacre of civilians. By the late 1980s, Renamo’s insurgency had caused at least 100,000 deaths and the creation of more than 1,000,000 refugees. Mozambique’s economy was brought to a standstill, and the government was unable to keep the country’s railroad network functioning without the help of troops from Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania.

A peace agreement was signed in 1992, and Renamo participated in multiparty elections after 1994. From 1999 until 2009, Renamo was part of a coalition of opposition parties, the Renamo–União Eleitoral (Electoral Union) electoral alliance, and remained active in Mozambique politics into the 21st century.

Tensions between Renamo and the Frelimo-led government grew—in part because of the growing economic imbalance in the country and the political marginalization of Renamo and other opposition groups—and in 2012 Renamo’s leader, Afonso Dhlakama, retreated to a Renamo jungle base, claiming that he feared for his life. Sporadic violence between Renamo fighters and government troops or police culminated in October 2013 with Dhlakama revoking the 1992 peace agreement.

Renamo’s low-level insurgency continued until a new cease-fire and peace agreement was reached in 2014, which allowed Dhlakama to stand as the presidential candidate for Renamo in the country’s October presidential and legislative elections. He was defeated by Filipe Nyusi, the Frelimo candidate, but Renamo, as a party, increased its number of legislative seats. After the election, fighting between Renamo and the government flared in 2015 and continued into the next year. Both sides participated in peace talks beginning in mid-2016, leading to Renamo announcing a two-month unilateral truce in December. Renamo extended the truce repeatedly as the peace negotiations continued, and in August 2017 Dhlakama and Nyusi met in person for the first time since 2015.

Dhlakama died unexpectedly in May 2018; as leader of the opposition party in parliament, he was given a state funeral. Dhlakama’s untimely death initially left two critical questions unanswered: Who would succeed him as leader of Renamo? and How would his death affect the ongoing peace process? To the surprise of many, the group quickly named an interim leader, Ossufo Momade, in the days after Dhlakama’s death. Peace talks with the Frelimo-led government continued, and by year’s end some progress had been made toward fulfilling Renamo’s demands of decentralizing governing power and integrating its members into either the country’s security forces or civil society and the government’s stipulation that the group disarm. Momade’s interim status as leader of Renamo was made permanent in January 2019, when he was elected president of the party.

Negotiations between Renamo and the Frelimo-led government continued and ultimately appeared successful, culminating in Nyusi and Momade signing two widely praised agreements in August 2019. The first, a cessation of hostilities agreement, was signed on August 1, and the second, a peace and national reconciliation agreement, was signed days later, on August 6. The August agreements paved the way for a generally peaceful campaign period and election day later that year. There were some isolated incidents of violence, however, including the murder of a Renamo election observer less than a week before the polls; there were also allegations of fraud and voter intimidation on election day. As in previous elections, Frelimo was victorious in the presidential and legislative polls. The ruling party also won an overwhelming majority of the vote in all of the provincial assemblies, which was somewhat unexpected, given that Renamo had enjoyed success at the provincial level in the past and had been expected to perform well in some of the provinces. This had significant implications for Renamo, as, during the peace process, one of its demands had been for provincial governors to be (indirectly) elected instead of being appointed by the president—a demand that was met by amendments to the constitution in 2018. Citing reports of voting irregularities, fraud, and intimidation, Renamo filed a bid with the country’s Constitutional Council to overturn the results of the 2019 elections. The court, however, said there was not sufficient evidence to support the party’s claims and rejected the bid.

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