adminMembers of the former rebel group Renamo attacked a police command post in the town of Muxungue, just hours after the police raided a Renamo office with tear gas and arrested 15 leaders, Chibabava district administrator Arnaldo Major told AFP.
“At three o clock in the morning, Renamo attacked the police force. The commander of the Renamo force died and four police officers,” he said, adding that the rebel commander went by the name of Rasta Mazement. “They came armed and in uniform,” said Major, adding that eight police officers, one female civilian and an unknown number of Renamo supporters were wounded.
According to a BBC report, Renamo said it launched the attack in retaliation of the police raids on meetings they were holding in the towns of Gondola and Muxungue.
The police said Renamo’s meetings were military training seminars organised to destabilise the country.
“Renamo is tired of persecution, humiliations, repression, dictatorship and slavery,” AFP news agency quoted Renamo’s security chief Ossufo Momad as saying.Tension between the Frelimo-led government and Renamo have peaked ahead of local elections set for November, which Renamo has threatened to disrupt.
The two groups fought a bitter 16-year brutal civil war, and resulted in the deaths of as many as one million people.
Late last year, long-time Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama set up a bush camp in the nearby Gorongosa mountains, where he began retraining former guerrilla fighters.
Speaking to AFP, he threatened a return the country to war unless government met his demands for a renegotiation of the terms of the 1992 peace accord. — AFP/bbc.co.uk.
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