Former Military Networks a Threat to Peace? The Demobilisation and Remobilisation of Renamo in Central Mozambique

Renamo’s recent upsurge against the Mozambican Frelimo-led government after 22 years of relative stability has challenged the country’s often celebrated disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process (1992–1994). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Maringue (Sofala province), the location of the rebels’ wartime headquarters and a post-war Renamo stronghold, this paper shows that while the DDR program supposedly ended Renamo’s command and control structure, the former rebel network continued to be a central feature of ex-combatants’ social worlds. Former Renamo combatants spend most of their time in the company of their ‘colleagues of the trenches’ and engaged in relationships of dependency with political Renamo leaders and former commanders. These relationships were not only shaped by the former military structure, but also by friendship, marriage, and patronage dynamics, providing ex-Renamo combatants with physical and economic safety, a sense of belonging and economic possibilities.
Recent events in Mozambique suggest that the post-conflict continuation of informal wartime networks is a threat to peace and a failure of demobilization. Nevertheless, the fieldwork conducted in Maringue reveals that the dismantling of the command and control structure is often in vain, as it may be worthwhile for ex-combatants to maintain ties with their former military group for various reasons. Therefore, I argue that it may be useful to consider these networks based on the former armed group in processes of violence reduction, also in the development of DDR programs, as these may offer possibilities for the re-positioning and transformation of (former) armed actors.