{"id":41631,"date":"2014-08-25T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T09:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=41631"},"modified":"2014-08-25T09:00:17","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T09:00:17","slug":"mozambique-rivals-agree-ceasefire-ahead-of-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=41631","title":{"rendered":"Mozambique rivals agree ceasefire ahead of elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government of Mozambique has signed a ceasefire with the Renamo opposition party in a bid to end hostilities ahead of elections in October.<\/p>\n

The deal follows two years of low-level clashes between armed members of Renamo and government forces.<\/p>\n

In 2013 Renamo withdrew from a peace deal signed more than 20 years earlier which had ended a protracted civil war.<\/p>\n

Last week, as part of the negotiations, the government began releasing Renamo prisoners captured in recent fighting.<\/p>\n

The ceasefire was signed on Sunday night in the capital Maputo between Renamo’s chief negotiator Saimon Macuiane and the government after almost a year of negotiations.<\/p>\n

Mr Macuiane told the AFP news agency that the “definitive agreement” came into operation as of 22:00 local time (2000 GMT) on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“We have begun a new era for the country,” Mr Macuiane said, describing the ceasefire as an “important step towards national reconciliation… and a durable peace”.<\/p>\n

Correspondents say that Renamo has been fighting a low-level insurgency since party leader Afonso Dhlakama returned to the bush in 2012, two decades after he agreed a peace deal with the governing Frelimo party.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s late night agreement follows a general peace agreement between the two sides a week ago – including a deal over the integration of Renamo’s remaining members into the Mozambique security forces.<\/p>\n

\"After<\/div>\n
After winning independence Mozambique’s Frelimo fighters became the governing party but were soon pitched into a civil war against rebels backed by neighbouring South Africa<\/div>\n
\"People<\/div>\n
It is hoped that any peace deal may improve Mozambique’s economy – the country’s agriculture sector remains seriously underdeveloped<\/div>\n

Renamo officials say that Mr Dhlakama – who has been under cover in the remote Gorongosa mountains in central Sofala province for nearly a year – did not travel to the capital to sign the ceasefire himself, even though he pledged earlier that he would commit to doing so once his party reached a final agreement with the government.<\/p>\n

“He mandated me to declare it,” Mr Macuiane said, at the same time indicating that Mr Dhlakama would meet Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza at a later date.<\/p>\n

“It is obvious that there will be a high level, symbolic meeting later on,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n

Parliament is expected to start the process of implementing the peace agreement over the next week.<\/p>\n

Presidential and national polls are due to be held on 15 October, Mr Macuiane said.<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government of Mozambique has signed a ceasefire with the Renamo opposition party in a bid to end hostilities ahead of elections in October. The deal follows two years of low-level clashes between armed members of Renamo and government forces. In 2013 Renamo withdrew from a peace deal signed more than 20 years earlier which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":41632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-41631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}