Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Africa to the south and southwest. The sovereign state is separated from the Comoros, Mayotte, and Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo.
Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, overseas province and later a member state of Portugal. It gained independence from Portugal in 1975.
Politics in Mozambique takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Mozambique is head of state and head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of the Republic.
The Mozambique Defence Armed Forces or FADM are the national armed forces of Mozambique. They include the General Staff of the Armed Forces and three branches of service: Army, Air Force and Navy.
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican politician and revolutionary. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975 until his death in a plane crash in 1986.
The national flag of Mozambique is a horizontal tricolour of green, black, and golden-yellow with white fimbriations and a red isosceles triangle at the hoist. The triangle is charged with a five-pointed gold star in its center, above which there is a gun crossed by a hoe, superimposed on an open book. The colours and symbols of the flag represent different aspects of the Mozambican people and their war of independence.
RENAMO is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents opposed to Mozambique's ruling FRELIMO party. RENAMO was initially led by André Matsangaissa, a former senior official in FRELIMO's armed wing, and was composed of several anti-communist dissident groups which appeared immediately prior to, and shortly following, Mozambican independence. Matsangaissa, who died in 1979, was succeeded by Afonso Dhlakama, who led the organization until he died in 2018. He was succeeded by Ossufo Momade.
The United Nations Operations in Mozambique was a UN peace mission to Mozambique established in December 1992 under Security Council Resolution 797 with the assignment to monitor the implementation of the Rome General Peace Accords agreed upon by the Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano of FRELIMO, the Front for Liberation of Mozambique, and Afonso Dhlakama of RENAMO, the Mozambican National Resistance. The operation was one of the most significant and extensive UN operations and it sought to demobilize and disarm troops, provide humanitarian aid, and oversee the elections. The operation ended in December 1994.
Afonso Marceta Macacho Dhlakama was a Mozambican politician and the leader of RENAMO, an anti-communist guerrilla movement that fought the FRELIMO government in the Mozambican Civil War before signing a peace agreement and becoming an opposition political party in the early 1990s. Dhlakama was born in Mangunde, Sofala Province.
The Mozambican Civil War was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the impetus for the Mozambican Civil War included local dynamics exacerbated greatly by the polarizing effects of Cold War politics. The war was fought between Mozambique's ruling Marxist Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the anti-communist insurgent forces of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), and a number of smaller factions such as the PRM, UNAMO, COREMO, UNIPOMO, and FUMO.
Lina Júlia Francisco Magaia was a Mozambican writer, journalist and veteran of the war for the independence of Mozambique. She was a woman of many facets, working in writing, film, rural development, and as a soldier during the liberation of the country from colonial rule.
The People's Republic of Mozambique was a socialist state that existed in present-day Mozambique from 1975 to 1990. It was established when the country gained independence from Portugal in June 1975 and the Mozambican Liberation Front ("FRELIMO") established a one-party socialist state led by Samora Machel. The state enjoyed close political and military ties with the Soviet Union, which was one of the first nations to provide diplomatic recognition and financial support to the fledgling FRELIMO government. For the duration of its history, the People's Republic of Mozambique remained heavily dependent on Soviet aid, both in financial terms as well as with regards to food security, fuel, and other vital economic necessities. From 1977 to 1992, the country was devastated by a deadly civil war which pitted the armed forces against the anti-communist Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO) insurgency, backed by neighbouring Rhodesia and South Africa.
Filipe Jacinto Nyusi is a Mozambican politician who was the fourth president of Mozambique from 2015 to 2025. He has also served as the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community from 2020 to 2022. During his time in office, President Nyusi promoted peace and security, and signed multiple agreements with the main opposition parties, RENAMO, to bring a definitive and lasting peace to Mozambique.
Uria Timoteo Simango was a Mozambican Presbyterian minister and prominent leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) during the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. His precise date of death is unknown as he was extrajudicially executed along with several other FRELIMO dissidents and his wife, Celina by the post-independence government of Samora Machel.
The RENAMO insurgency was a guerrilla campaign by militants of the RENAMO party and one of its splinter factions in Mozambique. The insurgency was widely considered to be an aftershock of the Mozambican Civil War; it resulted in renewed tensions between RENAMO and Mozambique's ruling FRELIMO coalition over charges of state corruption and the disputed results of the 2014 general elections.
The concept of human rights in Mozambique is an ongoing issue for the African country, officially named the Republic of Mozambique. For more than four centuries, Mozambique was ruled by the Portuguese. Following Mozambique’s independence from Portugal came 17 years of civil war, between RENAMO and FRELIMO, until 1992, when peace was finally reached. Armando Guebuza was then elected president in 2004 and re-elected in 2009, despite criticisms that he lacked honesty, transparency, and impartiality. This sparked a series of human rights incidents including unlawful killing, arbitrary arrests, inhumane prison conditions, and unfair trials. There were also many issues regarding freedom in relation to speech and media, internet freedom, freedom of peaceful assembly, and discrimination and abuse of women, children and people with disabilities. Many of these issues are ongoing and have become current human rights violation is for Mozambique.
The Revolutionary Party of Mozambique was an armed rebel group in northern Mozambique during the Mozambican Civil War. Founded by Amos Sumane in 1974 or 1976, the PRM was strongly opposed to Mozambique's FRELIMO government and its communist ideology. The party waged a low-level insurgency in the provinces of Zambezia, Tete and Niassa from 1977. Sumane was captured in 1980 and executed by the Mozambican government in 1981. The PRM's leadership passed to Gimo Phiri under whom the party merged with another rebel group, RENAMO, in 1982.
The following is a timeline of events during the Mozambican Civil War as well as subsequent RENAMO insurgency (2013–2021).
In the Mozambican Civil War, Operation Leopard was a military operation by the FPLM in southern Manica Province which culminated in the capture of RENAMO’s stronghold in the Sitatonga 2 Mountain. Following the offensive FPLM was unable to maintain their full control over the area captured and RENAMO continued to remain active around Sitatonga 2.
The Maluana massacre was a massacre of civilians traveling along the North-South Highway near the town of Maluana, Mozambique which is approximately 30 miles north of the capital of Maputo. The massacre was carried out by RENAMO rebels who ambushed a large civilian vehicle convoy which was traveling northward. Similar massacres had occurred nearby in the previous months such as the Taninga Massacres with RENAMO aiming to cut the capital of Maputo off from the rest of the country.
RENAMO 
