Emerging Challenges to Long-term Peace and Security in Mozambique

Mozambique’s transition from civil war to peace is often considered among the most successful implementations of a peace agreement in the post-Cold War era. Following the signing of the 1992 Rome General Peace Accords (GPA), the country has not experienced any large-scale recurrence of war. Instead, Mozambique has made impressive progress in economic growth, poverty reduction, improved security, regional cooperation and post-war democratisation. Mozambique has also made significant strides in the provision of primary healthcare, and steady progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Notwithstanding these stellar achievements, Mozambique still faces a large number of political, social and economic problems: poverty, unemployment, natural resource boom, increasing political exclusion and growing political tensions between Renamo and the Frelimo government, dependence on foreign aid, and low access to social and economic services and facilities. This paper unpacks these challenges and the implications for Mozambique’s long-term peace and security