AFONSO DHLAKAMA (pictured), the Mozambican rebel turned opposition leader who died on May 3rd at his Gorongosa mountain lair, had been the undisputed and charismatic leader of Renamo for nearly 40 years. Some disciples said he had magic powers: that he could turn into a partridge (a symbol of Renamo) to escape danger. He had been trying to clinch a peace deal with the government, and was said to have made progress during secretive talks with Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi. But since, in typical African big-man style, he left no successor, that whole process may now be in question.
Mr Dhlakama had once before laid down his guns, ending a civil war marked by mass atrocities, child conscripts and 1m deaths between 1977 and 1992. But the two decades of peace that followed were not to his liking. In 2012 he took up arms again to protest against the dominance of Frelimo, the ruling party. Renamo fighters attacked police stations,...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa https://ift.tt/2I6cqp6
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