Mozambican Civil War

Mozambican Civil War
	Part of the aftermath of the Mozambican War of Independence, and the Cold War
	; Mozambican victim of land mines set up during the war
Date	30 May 1977 – 4 October 1992; (15 years, 4 months, 4 days)
Location	Mozambique
Result	See aftermath
Belligerents
Mozambique (People's Republic until 1990) FRELIMO; UNAMO (1988–1992); ZANU (until 1979); Zimbabwe (from 1980); Soviet Union; Tanzania; Malawi (from 1987)	RENAMO; PRM (merged with RENAMO in 1982); UNAMO (1987–1988); COREMO; UNIPOMO; FUMO; Rhodesia (until 1979) Ex-Flechas; South Africa (from 1978)
Commanders and leaders
Samora Machel †; Joaquim Chissano; Robert Mugabe; Julius Nyerere; Hastings Banda	André Matsangaissa †; (RENAMO); Afonso Dhlakama; (RENAMO); Amos Sumane ; (PRM); Gimo Phiri; (PRM, RENAMO, UNAMO)
Strength
80,000 ; 20,000; 6,000; 4,000; 500	~20,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown; 296 soldiers and 24 pilots killed (1984–1990); 99 soldiers killed; 100+ killed; 8 killed (official data)	Unknown
	Total killed: 1,000,000+ (including from famine), as many as 100,000 killed by RENAMO

The Mozambican Civil War (Portuguese: Guerra Civil Moçambicana) was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992 due to a combination of local strife and the polarizing effects of Cold War politics. The fighting was between Mozambique's ruling Marxist Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the Rhodesia backed 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.

RENAMO opposed FRELIMO's attempts to establish a socialist one-party state, and was heavily backed by the anti-communist governments of Rhodesia and South Africa who supported them in order to undermine FRELIMO's support for militant nationalist organisations in their own countries. Over one million Mozambicans were killed in the fighting or starved due to interruptions to food supply; an additional five million were displaced across the region. The Mozambican Civil War destroyed much of Mozambique's critical infrastructure in rural areas, including hospitals, rail lines, roads, and schools. FRELIMO's security forces and RENAMO insurgents were accused of committing numerous human rights abuses, including the use of child soldiers and indiscriminately salting a significant percentage of the countryside with land mines. Three neighboring states—Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Malawi—eventually deployed troops into Mozambique to defend their own vested economic interests against RENAMO attacks.

The Mozambican Civil War ended in 1992, following the collapse of support from the Soviet Union and South Africa for FRELIMO and RENAMO, respectively. Direct peace talks began around 1990 with the mediation of the Mozambican Church Council and the Italian government; these culminated in the Rome General Peace Accords which formally ended hostilities. As a result of the Rome General Peace Accords, RENAMO units were demobilised or integrated into the Mozambican armed forces and the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) was formed to aid in postwar reconstruction. Tensions between RENAMO and FRELIMO flared again between 2013 and 2018, prompting the former to resume its insurgency. This smaller second conflict ended with a peace treaty in 2019.