[17][18] The Mozambican Civil War destroyed much of Mozambique's critical infrastructure in rural areas, including hospitals, rail lines, roads, and schools.

[15] 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.

[23] FRELIMO drew its initial base of support primarily from Mozambican migrant workers and expatriate intellectuals who had been exposed to the emerging popularity of anti-colonial and nationalist causes overseas, as well as the Makonde and other ethnic groups in northern Mozambique, where Portuguese influence was weakest.

[22] FRELIMO guerrillas initially received training primarily in North Africa and the Middle East in countries such as Algeria, with the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China providing military equipment.

[25] During the late 1960s, the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA) also took advantage of the gradual disintegration of Portuguese military control in Mozambique to begin infiltrating South Africa from that territory.

[27] The revolution also brought to power a military junta known as the Armed Forces Movement, which was committed to divesting itself of the colonies and ending the increasingly costly African wars.

[28] The Portuguese decision to effect a transfer to power to FRELIMO, without a local referendum or elections, was greeted with intense trepidation by Portugal's traditional Cold War allies: South Africa, Rhodesia, and the United States.

[29] Black opposition movements in South Africa declared that they would bring FRELIMO officials to address rallies being held near Durban, Johannesburg, and at the University of Northern Transvaal.

[29] In Mozambique, the announcement sparked an uprising by right-wing elements in the white population, joined by disgruntled veterans of the colonial army and some black Mozambicans outraged by FRELIMO's pending unilateral assumption of power.

[31] However, South African prime minister B. J. Vorster was unwilling to intervene, fearing condemnation from the international community for any interference with the decolonisation process in a neighbouring country.

[31] Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith was more sympathetic to the rebels' cause but felt that he would unable to act without the guarantee of South African support.

Firstly, the independence wars in Angola and Mozambique demonstrated that even with great military resources it was virtually impossible for a small white minority to guarantee the safety of its members, let alone to exert control over a mobilised and agitated population outside of major power centres.

At the same time, the apartheid government and the Smith regime lost Portugal as an ally and with it the tens of thousands of soldiers that had been deployed in the Portuguese colonial wars.

The loss of these ports after President Machel declared sanctions against the country further weakened the already fragile economy of Rhodesia and angered the Ian Smith regime.

The Revolutionary Party of Mozambique (PRM), founded by Amos Sumane in 1974 or 1976, waged a low-level insurgency in the northern provinces of Zambezia, Tete and Niassa from 1977.

"[52] RENAMO's political programme centered around the abandonment of FRELIMO's socialist policies, the adoption of a free market economy, and more traditionalist concerns such as the reinstatement of tribal leaders to positions of authority.

[10] In 1982, landlocked Zimbabwe directly intervened in the civil war in order to secure its vital transport routes in Mozambique, stop cross-border RENAMO raids, and help its old ally FRELIMO.

[2] Banda explicitly turned against RENAMO after the disgruntled insurgents began targeting a vital rail line which linked Blantyre to Mozambican ports on the Indian Ocean coast.

In return, Pretoria promised to stop assistance to the MNR in exchange for FRELIMO's commitment to prevent the ANC from using Mozambique as a sanctuary to pursue its campaign to overthrow white minority rule in South Africa.

Collective and state agricultural programs were also scaled back, prompting concerns from the socialist bloc that Mozambique was "moving straight and naively into the mouth of the evil capitalist wolf.

[61] By the end of the 1980s RENAMO, whilst incapable of capturing or securing any large cities, was still able to move freely in rural areas and attack smaller settlements at will.

Subsequent investigations have failed to reach a conclusion and the accident remains surrounded by conspiracy theories claiming that South Africa was responsible for the crash.

These included massacres, rapes and mutilation of non-combatants during attacks on villages and towns, the use of child soldiers and the employment of the Gandira system, which involved forced labour and sexual violence.

RENAMO's atrocities gained worldwide attention in July 1987, following a massacre of 424 civilians during a raid on the rural town of Homoine, which was lightly defended by 90 FRELIMO soldiers.

[74] However, this conclusion has been disputed by the French Marxist scholar Michel Cahen, who states that both sides were equally to blame:There can be no doubt that the war was largely one fought against civilians...

[78] As part of a series of measures following independence, FRELIMO introduced "re-education camps" to which petty criminals, political opponents, and alleged anti-social elements such as prostitutes were sent, oftentimes without trial due to a lack of judges.

[17][18][85] HALO Trust, a de-mining group funded by the US and UK, began operating in Mozambique in 1993, recruiting local workers to remove land mines scattered throughout the country.

Four HALO workers were killed in the subsequent effort to rid Mozambique of land mines, which continued to cause as many as several hundred civilian injuries and fatalities annually for years after the war.

RENAMO does not recognise the validity of the election results, and demands the control of six provinces – Nampula, Niassa, Tete, Zambezia, Sofala, and Manica – where they claim to have won a majority.

However, a joint commission for the political dialogue between the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, and RENAMO leader, Afonso Dhlakama, was eventually set up and a working meeting was held.