NELSPRUIT – Another attack by Renamo occurred on Saturday morning. This time, according to AFP, a group of armed men from Renamo killed one man and injured nine others, four of them seriously, in an attack on a minibus.
The attack took place in the central province of Sofala, on the stretch of the main north-south highway between the Save River and the small town of Muxungue.
This was despite a specific pledge by Renamo president Mr Afonso Dhlakama that there would be no further attacks on the roads.
Later, a local radio station reported that the bus had apparently taken the risk of travelling alone, and not in the convoys escorted by the military along the 100- kilometre stretch of road.
After the gunmen had stopped the bus, they apparently looted the passengers' possessions and then set the vehicle on fire.
One of the passengers told the local radio station that the armed gang first shot the driver, and then began firing randomly at the passengers.
Last Monday Renamo annulled the peace accord signed in 1992 that ended the country's 16-year war.
This after the Mozambican army staged an attack against the rebel group and took over its military base near the Gorongosa Mountains in central Mozambique. Then on Tuesday, Renamo retaliated by attacking a police station in Maringue.
According to the South African Institute of Safety and Security Studies,
Dr Gwinyaye Dzinesa, Renamo had been accusing the government for some time of monopolising the country politically and economically. Renamo also alleged that the ruling party had a bigger stake in the coal and the recently discovered off-shore gas reserves in the country.
These issues peaked when Dhlakama set up camp last October in Gorongosa in central Sofala province. The party then regrouped.
Renamo apparently regrouped with about 300 to 800 former Renamo fighters.
This just before the annual municipal elections in November.
Experts predict that the conflict could be concentrated around the coal and gas reserves in the north. Due to Renamo not having the backing as it did previously of Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, plus most of their soldiers aged in their 50s, most experts believe the group will not be able to start another a civil war.
Yet Dzinesa warned that Renamo would be starting to attack roads and railways and target strategic infrastructures.
He concluded that the situation could be construed as a crisis, although there had been only isolated incidents and as yet no violent conflict outside that region.
