The emergence of a new agreement to end civil conflict in Mozambique is an important development. This paper examines how this deal was achieved and highlights some of the potential risks in the run-up to the October 2019 elections and beyond.
Acknowledgments
The author is grateful to the officials, civil society workers, journalists, faith groups, diplomats, mediators and political activists who agreed to be interviewed, many anonymously, for this research. This paper benefited from three visits to Mozambique in 2018 and 2019. Christopher Vandome, research associate, and Fergus Kell, programme assistant, of the Africa Programme at Chatham House provided research input. The author is also grateful to the peer reviewers for their suggestions. Thanks also to Michael Tsang, who edited the paper, and Soapbox for their design work. The author also acknowledges the UK government’s Stabilisation Unit in commissioning the original 2018 paper on elite bargains and political deals in Mozambique and the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office for supporting the translation of this updated paper into Portuguese by George Welch.