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Fighting between Mozambique government forces and Renamo rebels has sent as many as 10,000 people fleeing to Malawi.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in mid-April that is had started relocating to a safer and more organised zone the refugees who started drifting across the two countries’ common border in December as the armed conflict flared up. The exodus peaked in early March when around 250 people were fleeing into Malawi daily.

Weekend reports said others had fled to Zimbabwe and had been ferried to Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge, a settlement ironically set up to house Mozambican refugees before the peace deal in 1992. Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Tapiwa Matangaidze told our sister paper The Sunday Mail that 334 Zimbabwean families who were living on the Mozambican side were now at Tongogara Refugee Camp in Manicaland. A Mozambican family of 19 is at Tongogara Refugee Camp as well.

Chipinge South National Assembly representative Cde Enock Porusingazi told The Sunday Mail: “It is happening; over 400 families have crossed into Zimbabwe as they flee ongoing violence by Renamo bandits.

“Most of these families have lost properties, and fled after being forced to denounce the ruling Frelimo government. We have also discovered that many of those fleeing Renamo are Zimbabweans living on the Mozambican side.

“The last time Renamo encroached into Zimbabwe, they looted cattle and food, sending locals into panic. We are also concerned with the refugees’ plight.

“There is no water and there are no toilets; the refugees do not even have food to eat. We are, therefore, appealing for assistance and we hope the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees will also come to the rescue.”

Renamo and the Frelimo government are old enemies who have been literally fighting for the past 41 years. The rebel movement was formed by the Rhodesian intelligence in 1975 and backed by apartheid South Africa as a strategy to destabilise the new post-independence government of Cde Samora Machel and forestall the liberation struggles in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Renamo and Frelimo fought each other until a peace deal was signed in 1992.

There was a period of relative peace thereafter but in October 2012, the tensions resumed when Renamo leader Mr Afonso Dhlakama decamped into his hideout in Gorongosa Mountains in central Mozambique, where his men are attacking law enforcement agents and civilians, sending them in flight to Malawi and Zimbabwe. In December last year he threatened to seize control of six northern and central provinces by March this year.

We are unhappy about the fighting in our neighbouring state not only because it brings more suffering and economic challenges to the friendly people of Mozambique but also because of the threat that it poses to our country economically and in terms of insecurity.

We appeal to Dhlakama and the government of President Filipe Nyusi to take every step necessary for their people to enjoy durable peace. But we demand that Mr Dhlakama first renounces violence and disarms his men. Government forces also have to exercise restraint.

This will give ongoing negotiations a chance to succeed. Mr Dhlakama has a set of demands that include the government allowing his party freer rein in running the six provinces it won in elections in October 2014, collaboration between his armed men and the formal forces including the rebels being accorded command positions in the security sector, and the upholding of the “rule of law.”

We are eternally hopeful that both parties will continue talking and reach an understanding, but guns must fall silent. While we are hopeful, we know that Mr Dhlakama apparently has an affinity for disorder and a life in the jungle as he repudiated the September 5, 2014 deal he signed with Armando Guebuza to end the two-year period of instability.

An important element of that agreement was the integration of the rival armies but Renamo refused to have its men disarmed. Mr Dhlakama officially renounced the peace in August 2015.

Indeed, Mr Dhlakama is a thoroughly dishonourable man but the Frelimo government has been encouragingly cautious in dealing with him. However, there must come a time when more robust tactics must be used to quell that insurgency. It can’t fester forever. The people of Mozambique don’t deserve it. Sadc doesn’t deserve it. Our bloc is known for peace and stability but the situation in Mozambique and to some extent in Lesotho and DRC is worrisome.

The refugee crisis in Malawi should motivate the leaders to start finding other ways of resolving the Renamo-Frelimo spat for there is always a risk of escalation of hostilities when we have two armed belligerents disagreeing the way these two parties are doing now, and have done in the past.

We don’t think it would be amiss for us to urge regional leaders to, subject to proper due diligence, get more involved in efforts to stabilise Mozambique. In that connection, it can be useful for Sadc to appoint a foreign mediator to bring Mr Dhlakama and President Nyusi to the negotiating table.

A foreigner stands a greater chance of prodding both parties into line and is not encumbered by local loyalties.