Suspected Renamo rebels attack bus in Mozambique

21 June 2013 - 11:46 By Reuters
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Fighters of former Mozambican rebel movement "Renamo" receive military training on November 8, 2012 in Gorongosa's mountains, Mozambique. Former rebel leader turned opposition party chief, Afonso Dhlakama, twenty years after agreeing to peace, is ready to take up weapons again unless the ruling Frelimo party agrees to renegotiate peace terms. Renamo waged a16-year civil war against Frelimo that devastated the economy until peace was signed in 1992. File photo
Fighters of former Mozambican rebel movement "Renamo" receive military training on November 8, 2012 in Gorongosa's mountains, Mozambique. Former rebel leader turned opposition party chief, Afonso Dhlakama, twenty years after agreeing to peace, is ready to take up weapons again unless the ruling Frelimo party agrees to renegotiate peace terms. Renamo waged a16-year civil war against Frelimo that devastated the economy until peace was signed in 1992. File photo
Image: AFP PHOTO / JINTY JACKSON

Suspected opposition Renamo guerrillas attacked a passenger bus in central Mozambique on Friday, injuring an elderly woman, the government said.

The incident happened two days after Renamo, the former rebel movement that waged a 1975-1992 civil war, threatened to

“paralyse” key roads in the southern African nation and its only coal export railway in a bid to force the ruling Frelimo party into making political concessions.

Interior Ministry spokesman Pedro Cossa said three shots were fired at the bus near the town of Machanga in the central province of Sofala.

“I have no doubt that it was Renamo,” he told Reuters.

State radio said rapid-response police units had started patrolling the main north-south highway in response to the Renamo threats.

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