Constitutional changes key to stability – Nyusi

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has vowed to introduce constitutional changes to decentralise power as part of peace efforts between his Frelimo party and the opposition Renamo group. A report on the News24 site notes that Renamo rebels fought a 16-year war against the ruling Frelimo party until 1992, and fighting flared up again between 2013 and 2016. Nyusi said changes to how provincial governors are appointed and to provincial elections were a result of ‘dialogue on peace that I have been maintaining with (Renamo leader) Afonso Dhlakama’. Nyusi held a meeting with Dhlakama last year in the remote Gorongosa mountains where Dhlakama has been in hiding since 2015. The President called for both sides to support national reconciliation, saying ‘effective peace will not come solely from the decentralisation package'. The proposed constitutional changes will now go before Parliament.