Good afternoon. With Mozambique’s elections two days away, it is hard not to see government decisions through the prism of the election campaign. However, party politics are not likely to be the main reason that Bertolino Capitine was dismissed as deputy chief of the armed forces general staff last week (see below). Capitine had been publicly criticising the conduct of the war against insurgents in Cabo Delgado province, something that no government would tolerate, regardless of the fact that he is a former guerrilla commander with Renamo, the ex-paramilitary group turned opposition party, who joined the regular armed forces as part of the demobilisation deal struck with Renamo.
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Capitine himself is known to have been unhappy at not having been made chief of the general staff, having already served as deputy under the previous chief, Eugénio Mussa. Instead, Joaquim Mangrasse was appointed from the navy.
