Can Peace Finally Take Hold With a New Accord in Mozambique?

Can Peace Finally Take Hold With a New Accord in Mozambique?
Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, right, and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade hug each other after signing a peace accord at Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Aug, 1, 2019 (AP photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.

With the signing of a peace agreement this week, Mozambique’s decades-long internal struggle might finally be nearing its end. The agreement between the country’s two rival political parties—Frelimo, which has controlled the government since independence in 1975, and the former guerilla movement Renamo—comes just two months before national elections.

The anti-communist Renamo rebels launched a 15-year war against Frelimo’s Marxist government shortly after Mozambique achieved its independence from Portugal in 1975. The conflict was notoriously brutal and also spurred a famine, killing as many as a million people.

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