One Dead in Armed Attack on Convoy in Mozambique
Armed gunmen attacked a civilian convoy including a passenger bus in central Mozambique early Saturday, killing one and wounding at least 10, a witness and hospital worker said.
It was the second attack this week after the former rebel movement Renamo on Monday declared that a 1992 peace deal was over after government forces took over their military base in central Mozambique's Gorongosa mountains.
"Armed men came out of the woods, opened fire and hit the driver in the forehead or the face," said Felisberta Moutinho, a survivor of the attack.
A source at the Muxungue rural hospital confirmed one dead and at least nine wounded. Moutinho said 10 were wounded.
She attributed the assault to Renamo, now an official opposition party, whose militants have been attacking civilian vehicles travelling along this stretch of the north-south highway over the past six months.
Renamo spokesmen declined to comment.
A group of cars had been travelling northbound from the Machanga district towards the coastal city Beira when the gunmen attacked three vehicles.
"They kept shooting at the passengers. We left the bus and fled. Some fled through the windows, others were hit by bullets," Moutinho told Agence France Presse.
She said she ran into the woods with her two children until she found a group of police vehicles.
"A while later we heard explosions," she said.
"They stole all our things and then set fire to the bus."
Four people were seriously wounded and six others had light injuries, she said.
"Some children have serious wounds and are now in hospital," Moutinho said.
The attack came a day after Renamo announced its leader's right-hand man and member of parliament Armindo Milaco had been killed by a howitzer in Monday's assault on the group's base.
Milaco, a former child soldier, was head of national recruitment for the movement.
A day after the base fell, armed gunmen assaulted a police station in nearby Maringue district.
Renamo took up arms against the then-communist government of Frelimo -- the Mozambique Liberation Front -- after independence from Portugal in 1975.
It became the official opposition party after a 1992 peace agreement, but has lost every national election since.
Last November Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama returned to his bush camp Sathundjira near the Gorongosa mountains, saying he would retrain his soldiers for a revolution.
Government forces have been reinforced in the area since then, and the opposing militants have clashed repeatedly in the past six months.
In April four policemen and a Renamo fighter were killed when the group attacked a policeman in Muxungue, the area of Saturday's attack.
Mozambicans have taken to travelling in convoys along this stretch of highway to protect themselves against potential attacks.
Officially Renamo is demanding a bigger role in electoral bodies and its fighters' integration into the government forces. But analysts say it wants a cut of lucrative revenues from new coal mines and upcoming offshore gas exploitation.
More than 20 rounds of talks with Frelimo over the past 10 months have stalled with little progress.
The party is boycotting upcoming local polls on November 20 after refusing to register until electoral reforms are passed.
It failed to introduce its suggestions in parliament, saying they would probably be voted down because of Frelimo's overwhelming majority.
It has been highly critical of the Frelimo government, which it accuses of politicizing the state and stealing the impoverished country's resources.
Representatives of both groups however have denied a return to war after this week's hostilities.
"We know the consequences of conflict. If we respond with violence we might plunge the country back in war," Renamo spokesman Fernando Mazanga told AFP on Friday.
Source: Agence France Presse
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