Renamo attacks Mozambican police station - Mail & Guardian Online

Mozambican ex-rebel group Renamo staged a pre-dawn attack on a police station on Tuesday, hours after it declared the end of a peace deal signed 21 years earlier, locals said.

Police fled the station in the central town of Maringue when Renamo members opened fire on it, escalating hostilities between the rebel group-turned-opposition party and the government of ruling party Frelimo, the group against which Renamo fought a bloody 16-year civil war.

"Gunmen attacked the police station but fortunately there were no casualties because the policemen fled the post," Maringue administrator Antonio Absalao said.

The town is about 35km from Renamo's military base, which government troops seized on Monday in an operation the ex-rebels claimed was aimed at killing their leader, Afonso Dhlakama.

"The situation is horrible here. Early this morning, armed men supposed to be Renamo attacked, and it was a mess," said Romao Martins, a local teacher.

"For one hour, shooting could be heard from all directions and people fled from their homes," he said.

Schools shut 
Schools have been shut amid fears of an escalation in violence.

A Renamo spokesperson hinted that the group was responsible for the attack.

"The president of Renamo has lost control of the situation and you cannot blame ... [him] for what happens from here on," Renamo's Fernando Mazanga said.

"The guerrillas are scattered and will attack without taking any orders," said Mazanga.

'The end of multiparty democracy'
Renamo, which launched a rebellion against the then-communist Frelimo government after Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975, declared on Monday that it had pulled out of the peace agreement that ended that conflict.

Mazanga said Monday's attack on its base "marks the end of multiparty democracy" in Mozambique.

The Mozambique civil war, which ended in 1992 after Renamo lost its Cold War backers Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, killed about one million Mozambicans.

Tensions between the two sides began escalating last year after Dhlakama set up camp in the Gorongosa mountains, retraining former guerrilla fighters.

The assault on the Renamo base came after the former rebel movement attacked a government military unit on Thursday.

Defence ministry spokesperson Custodio Chume told state broadcaster Radio Mozambique that Monday's assault on the Renamo base was in response to that attack. – AFP