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Mozambican Civil War: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

Fifteen years of war between the Marxist FRELIMO government and the RENAMO insurgency created by Rhodesia and armed by South Africa; a million dead.

Fought
1977 to 1992
Duration
15 years
Dates
1977 to 1992
Deaths
About 1 million, mostly from famine and disease; 5 million displaced
Government
FRELIMO under Samora Machel, then Joaquim Chissano; Zimbabwean and Tanzanian troops; Soviet aid
Rebels
RENAMO under Afonso Dhlakama; Rhodesian, then South African backing
Result
Rome peace accords; multiparty elections; RENAMO becomes a party

The Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992) began two years after independence from Portugal, when Rhodesia's intelligence service created RENAMO to punish FRELIMO for sheltering Zimbabwean guerrillas. After Rhodesia fell, apartheid South Africa took over sponsorship, using RENAMO to destabilise Mozambique with attacks on railways, schools, clinics and villages; the Nkomati Accord of 1984 did not stop the aid. FRELIMO's one-party Marxism, forced villagisation and drought added to the misery. About a million people died, mostly from war-induced famine, and 5 million were displaced. The end of the Cold War and apartheid led to the Rome General Peace Accords of October 1992 and elections in 1994.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Mozambican Civil War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

15501600165017001750180018501900195020002050Mozambican Civil War (1977 to 1992)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Dutch EmpireDutch Empire (1602 to 1975)Open: Rozvi EmpireRozvi Empire (1660 to 1866)Open: Third Portuguese EmpireThird Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)Open: Cold WarCold War (1947 to 1991)Open: Portuguese Colonial WarPortuguese Colonial War (1961 to 1974)Open: Angolan Civil WarAngolan Civil War (1975 to 2002)Open: Second Congo WarSecond Congo War (1998 to 2003)

Deaths and displacement

0875175026253500Direct violence: 100100Direct violenceWar-induced famine and disease: 900900War-induced famine and diseaseInternally displaced: 35003500Internally displacedRefugees abroad: 15001500Refugees abroadthousands (approximate)

Timeline of the Mozambican Civil War

  1. 1975
    Independence from Portugal
  2. 1977
    RENAMO founded by Rhodesia
  3. 1980
    South Africa takes over RENAMO
  4. 1984
    Nkomati Accord
  5. 1986
    Machel dies; Chissano president
  6. 1987
    Homoine massacre424 killed.
  7. 1990
    Multiparty constitution
  8. 1992
    Rome peace accords4 October.
  9. 1994
    First elections

Rhodesia's creation

FRELIMO took power in 1975 and backed the Zimbabwean liberation movements; Ian Smith's Central Intelligence Organisation recruited Mozambican dissidents and ex-Portuguese soldiers into the Mozambican National Resistance in 1977 to raid the Beira corridor. FRELIMO's own policies, banning traditional chiefs and churches and herding peasants into communal villages, gave RENAMO recruits.

South Africa's proxy

After 1980 South African military intelligence rebuilt RENAMO with bases in the Transvaal, radios and arms; Dhlakama's forces spread to every province, kidnapping boys, cutting off ears and lips and mining roads. A US State Department report in 1988 blamed RENAMO for 100,000 civilian deaths. Machel signed the Nkomati non-aggression pact with Pretoria in 1984, but captured documents showed continued South African supply. Machel died in a mysterious plane crash on South African soil in October 1986. Zimbabwean troops guarded the Beira and Limpopo corridors.

Peace

Chissano dropped Marxism in 1989 and adopted a multiparty constitution in 1990. Mediation by the Sant'Egidio Catholic community in Rome, backed by Italy and the changing South Africa, produced the General Peace Agreement on 4 October 1992. UN peacekeepers oversaw demobilisation; RENAMO won 38 percent in the 1994 election and became the opposition. Mozambique became a development success in the 1990s, though RENAMO took up arms briefly again in 2013-2019.

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8 surprising things about the Mozambican Civil War

  1. RENAMO's initial commanders and radio station were provided by Rhodesia; its founder Andre Matsangaissa was an ex-FRELIMO soldier.
  2. Samora Machel's Tupolev crashed inside South Africa in 1986; a false navigation beacon has long been suspected.
  3. The 1988 Gersony report for the US called RENAMO's atrocities among the worst since the Nazis and cost it its American conservative sympathisers.
  4. Sant'Egidio, a Catholic lay community, brokered the peace over 27 months of talks in a Rome villa.
  5. The Beira corridor was defended by up to 10,000 Zimbabwean troops for most of the war.
  6. Landmines from the war were still killing people two decades later; Mozambique was declared mine-free in 2015.
  7. The AK-47 on Mozambique's flag dates from the FRELIMO liberation era, not the civil war.
  8. The Portuguese-built Cahora Bassa dam's power lines were cut so often it exported almost nothing for a decade.

Sources

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