Filipe Nyusi

His Excellency
Filipe Nyusi
Nyusi in 2023
4th President of Mozambique
Incumbent
Assumed office
15 January 2015
Prime MinisterAlberto Vaquina
Carlos Agostinho do Rosário
Adriano Maleiane
Preceded byArmando Guebuza
Chairman of Southern African Development Community
In office
17 August 2020 – 17 August 2022
Preceded byJohn Magufuli
Succeeded byFélix Tshisekedi
Minister of National Defence
In office
27 March 2008 – 14 March 2014[1]
Preceded byTobias Joaquim Dai
Succeeded byAgostinho Mondlane
Personal details
Born (1959-02-09) 9 February 1959 (age 65)
Mueda, Portuguese Mozambique (now Mozambique)
Political partyFRELIMO
SpouseIsaura Nyusi
Children4
Alma mater
ProfessionMechanical engineer
Websitewww.nyusi.org.mz

Filipe Jacinto Nyusi (Portuguese pronunciation: [fiˈlipɨ ʒɐˈsĩtu ˈɲusi]; born 9 February 1959) is a Mozambican politician serving since 2015 as the fourth president of Mozambique. He is the current leader of FRELIMO, the party that has governed Mozambique since its independence from Portugal in 1975. Additionally, he has served as the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community since August 2020.[2] During his time in office, President Nyusi has promoted peace and security, and signed multiple agreements with the main opposition parties, RENAMO, to bring a definitive and lasting peace to Mozambique.[3][4][5]

Nyusi served as the Minister of Defense from 2008 to 2014 under Armando Guebuza. He won the 2014 and 2019 Mozambican presidential elections as the candidate of FRELIMO. Despite allegations of irregularities[6][7][8][9] the President of the National Election Commission stated that "the elections were free, fair and transparent",[10] with the Constitutional Count verifying the result on 23 December 2019.[11] However, according to the European Union Election Observation Mission in Mozambique, Commonwealth Observer Group, and the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique, the 2019 election was characterized by instances of fraud, intimidation, and the murders of opposition leaders and election observers.[6][7][8][9] The President of the National Election Commission acknowledged that the 2019 elections were marked by irregularities, stating "that is why when [the National Election Commission] announced the results, nobody heard [the National Election Commission] saying that the elections were free, fair and transparent."[10]

During his time in office from 2015 to 2018, the poverty reduction trend observed between 2009–11 and 2015 reversed direction; the number of multidimensionally poor people increased from about 21.3 to about 22.2 million people from 2015 to 2018, with the extra million poor people mainly located in rural areas of the central provinces.[12]

Since March 2015, at least 10 high-profile figures have been killed in Mozambique.[13] These include leaders of opposition parties, journalists, and academics.[14][15][16][17][13] Previously, no similarly defined high-profile leaders of opposition parties and academics were reported killed since the Peace Accord of 1992 between RENAMO and FRELIMO.[18] Nyusi has also been accused of abuse of power; for example, some 90,000 school desks publicly delivered by Nyusi in September 2018 were manufactured by a company 50% owned by his daughter.[19][20] Furthermore, court documents filed by Jean Boustani in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 2019 and by Iskandar Safa in The High Court of Justice in London in 2021 alleged that Nyusi received up to 2 million dollars in bribes in 2014 in connection with illegal loans (also known as "hidden debts"), which caused an economic crisis in Mozambique when he was the Minister of Defense and/or afterward.[21][22]

Nyusi's time in office has been marked by the escalation of the war in Mozambique's central and northern regions.[23][24][25] The FRELIMO government has been described as authoritarian by The Economist Intelligence Unit,[26] Monjane et al.,[27] and Manning et al.[28]

  1. ^ "Profile: Incumbent Minister of Defence". Ministério da Defesa Nacional República de Moçambique. March 2014. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  2. ^ "Southern Africa: ...nyusi Takes Chair, Praises Magufuli". 18 August 2020. Archived from the original on 29 August 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  3. ^ mozambique. "Mozambique: Chief of international mediators welcomes agreement on Renamo's disarmament". Mozambique. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Moçambique: Nyusi e Momade assinam acordo de paz na Gorongosa | DW | 01.08.2019". DW.COM. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  5. ^ "Government of Mozambique and opposition party Renamo sign peace agreement to end decades of fighting | HD Centre". Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :27 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b "Dirigentes da Renamo encontrados mortos em Tete". VOA (in Portuguese). 18 October 2019. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  10. ^ a b Tocha, Cátia (30 October 2019). "Moçambique: CNE reconhece irregularidades nas eleições gerais". e-Global (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  11. ^ "Mozambique Political Process Bulletin 2019, 93: Constitutional Council OKs election". Zitamar. 23 December 2019. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  12. ^ Egger, Eva-Maria (1 June 2020). Evolution of multidimensional poverty in crisis-ridden Mozambique. WIDER Working Paper. Vol. 2020. doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2020/826-9. ISBN 9789292568269. S2CID 219544243. Archived from the original on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  13. ^ a b "Mozambique: Prominent Opposition Leader Killed". Human Rights Watch. 11 October 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  14. ^ "Prominent Mozambique rights lawyer gunned down in Maputo". The Telegraph. 6 March 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  15. ^ CanalMoz. "Brazão Mazula ataca esquadrões da morte e "gabinete do ódio" | CanalMOZ" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  16. ^ "Killings in Mozambique Target Lawyers, Judges | Voice of America - English". www.voanews.com. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  17. ^ "Mozambique election observer killed by 'elite police' in drive-by shooting". BBC News. 10 October 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ "CIP: Conflitos de interesse na compra de carteiras escolares pelo Estado | DW | 21.09.2018". DW.COM. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  20. ^ "Presidente moçambicano forneceu carteiras escolares fabricadas pela empresa da filha - ONG". www.dn.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  21. ^ Shipley, Thomas (13 December 2019). Grand corruption and the SDGs: The visible costs of Mozambique's hidden debts scandal (Report). Reviewer: Matthew Jenkins. Transparency International. JSTOR resrep20549.
  22. ^ "Documentos". CIP - Centro de Integridade Pública. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ "Moçambique: Mariano Nhongo assume autoria de ataques em Sofala | DW | 16.03.2020". DW.COM. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  25. ^ "Centro de Moçambique volta a ser palco de ataques armados | DW | 11.02.2016". DW.COM. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  26. ^ "Democracy Index 2020". Economist Intelligence Unit. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  27. ^ Monjane, Boaventura; Bruna, Natacha (2 January 2020). "Confronting agrarian authoritarianism: dynamics of resistance to PROSAVANA in Mozambique". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 47 (1): 69–94. doi:10.1080/03066150.2019.1671357. hdl:1765/122839. ISSN 0306-6150. S2CID 211456963.
  28. ^ Manning, Carrie (2007), Deonandan, Kalowatie; Close, David; Prevost, Gary (eds.), "Revolutionaries to Politicians: The Case of Mozambique", From Revolutionary Movements to Political Parties: Cases from Latin America and Africa, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 181–210, doi:10.1057/9780230609778_9, ISBN 978-0-230-60977-8, retrieved 17 February 2021