Violence is surging in central Mozambique between the government and the Mozambique National Resistance Movement, better known as Renamo. The fighting has forced thousands to evacuate into neighboring Malawi, which expects to be hosting more than 57,000 Mozambican refugees by October. Renamo has also targeted Malawian truck drivers and coal trains on their way to a mine operated by Brazil's Vale SA, causing numerous deaths and injuries in addition to property damage.
The flare-up in attacks is part of the on-again, off-again talks between Renamo and the government, in which the militant group is demanding increased federalism. Its push for more power for Mozambique's provinces follows repeated failures to win elections outside its support base in the country's central regions. Renamo is also frustrated at being shut out of the federal government while Maputo-appointed provincial heads wield significantly more power than locally elected officials do. Renamo's leaders have recently threatened to...
