Since 8 April 2016, there have been reports about the discovery of a mass grave in Mozambique. Some residents in the area said that the mass grave contains about 120 bodies while Human Rights Watch mentioned that there are at least 15 bodies. The mass grave is expected to undergo investigation, but people have already connected it to the armed conflict between FRELIMO and RENAMO.

FRELIMO, the dominant political party in Mozambique, and RENAMO, the rebel group against government forces including FRELIMO, fought against each other in a civil war that ended in 1992 with a peace treaty. Yet, the violence has been renewed since 2013. The mass grave highlight not only the history of the civil war but also recent consequences of the renewed violence.

Some consequences of the latest civil conflict have included increased emigration of victims who fear for their safety and decreased presence of RENAMO representatives in public. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Doctors Without Borders, and Human Rights Watch have documented testimonies from Mozambican refugees that describes violent acts by government forces towards them, such as burning of villages, sexual abuse, abductions, and executions without comprehensive and fair trials. Due to the renewed violence, UNHCR has had to reallocate as many as 12,000 Mozambican refugees to Malawi since 2015.

Through Zenaida Machado, Human Rights Watch has demanded the government to act more quickly and “immediately launch a credible and transparent investigation to determine the identities of the victims found, the causes of death, and who is responsible.”

Read more, visit:

http://www.africanews.com/2016/05/04/police-in-mozambique-to-probe-mass-grave-reports/
http://allafrica.com/stories/201605040506.html
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/06/mozambiques-invisible-civil-war-renamo-frelimo-dhlakama-nyusi/