Navigation
Script from JavaScript Kit
The Conflict with Renamo, 1976-1992
«October 1986»
Dossier MZ-0020
80. Samora Machel Killed in Plane Crash at Mbuzini
Above: The cover of the progressive monthly AfricAsia for its November 1986 issue, announcing the death of Samora Machel in the air disaster at Mbuzini. For MHN's extensive documentation on the disaster, click here
For documentation – spread across several web-pages – on the airplane disaster at Mbuzini, in South Africa, that killed President Samora Machel on 19 Ocober, please click here
The war intensified as a consequence of the pressure on Malawi to halt its low-key support for the Renamo rebels. Large numbers of fighters entered Mozambique from Malawi – according to some reports, commanded by white officers, presumably South Africans – and began to advance down the Zambezi valley, taking several key towns. At the end of the month the rebels offered a dramatic "peace proposal" to the government, which involved a cease-fire in return for "free elections" and the expulsion of foreign troops. Meanwhile, the movement's Lisbon wing took a bellicose position, declaring war on Zimbabwe. Neither of these announcements had any practical effect.
Click on the yellow folder image below to download an unsorted zipped archive of documents and press clippings in PDF format concerning the conflict between the Mozambican government and the MNR/Renamo in October 1986.
