Filipe Jacinto Nyusi (; born 12 February 1959) is a Mozambican politician serving as the fourth President of Mozambique since 2015. He is the current leader of

FRELIMO FRELIMO (; from the Portuguese , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's firs ...

, the party that has governed

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

since its independence from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

in 1975. Additionally, he has served as the Chairman of the

Southern African Development Community The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...

since August 2020. 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. Nyusi served as the Minister of Defense from 2008 to 2014 under

Armando Guebuza Armando Emílio Guebuza (born 20 January 1943) is a Mozambican politician who was the third President of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015. Career Guebuza, born at Murrupula in Nampula Province, joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) at ...

. He won the

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Mozambican presidential elections as the candidate of FRELIMO. Despite allegations of irregularities the President of the National Election Commission stated that "the elections were free, fair and transparent", with the Constitutional Count verifying the result on 23 December 2019. 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. The President of the National Election Commission acknowledged that the 2019 elections were marked by irregularities, stating that "that is why when he National Election Commissionannounced the results, nobody heard he National Election Commissionsaying that the elections were free, fair and transparent." During his time in office from 2015 to 2018, the

poverty reduction Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics ...

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 In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

of the central provinces. Since March 2015, at least 10 high-profile figures have been killed in Mozambique. These include leaders of opposition parties,

journalists A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, and

academics An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

. 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. 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. Furthermore, court documents filed by Jean Boustani in the

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, ...

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. His office time has been marked by the escalation of the war in Mozambique's central and northern regions. The FRELIMO government has been described as

authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vot ...

The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of the Economist Group, providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, such as monthly country reports, five-year country economic forecasts, ...

, Monjane et al., and Manning et al.

Early life and career

Nyusi was born in Namau in

Mueda District Mueda is a district of the province of Cabo Delgado, in Moçambique. The capital is the town of Mueda. The district of Mueda is bordered by Mtwara Region Mtwara Region (''Mkoa wa Mtwara'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrativ ...

Cabo Delgado Province Cabo Delgado is the northernmost province of Mozambique. It has an area of and a population of 2,320,261 (2017). As well as bordering Mtwara Region in the neighboring country of Tanzania, it borders the provinces of Nampula and Niassa. The r ...

, belonging to the Makonde ethnic group. Both his parents were veterans of the liberation movement, FRELIMO. At the start of the

Mozambican War of Independence The Mozambican War of Independence ( pt, Guerra da Independência de Moçambique, 'War of Independence of Mozambique') was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO () and Portugal. The w ...

, he was taken across the

Ruvuma River Ruvuma River, formerly also known as the Rovuma River, is a river in the African Great Lakes region. During the greater part of its course, it forms the border between Tanzania and Mozambique (in Mozambique known as ''Rio Rovuma''). The river is ...

to neighboring

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, where he was educated at FRELIMO Primary School in

Tunduru Tunduru, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is a town in Tunduru District, Ruvuma Region, Tanzania, East Africa. It is the administrative seat for Tunduru District, and is administratively divided into two wards Ward may ref ...

. He pursued his secondary education at the FRELIMO school at Mariri in Cabo Delgado and at Samora Machel Secondary School in Beira. In 1973, aged 14, he joined FRELIMO and received political and military training at

Nachingwea Nachingwea is a district in the Lindi Region of Tanzania. The district is bordered to the north by the Ruangwa District, to the east by the Lindi Rural District, to the south-east by the Mtwara Region, and to the south-west by the Ruvuma Regio ...

in Tanzania. In 1990, he completed his mechanical engineering degree at Antonín Zápotocký Military Academy (VAAZ) in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, now the Czech Republic's University of Defense. Prior to his appointment to the cabinet by President

, Nyusi worked for the state-owned

Mozambique Ports and Railways Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (abbreviated CFM; in English Mozambique Ports and Railways) is a state-owned company that oversees the railway system of Mozambique and its connected ports. The rail system is composed of a total of 2,9 ...

Authority (CFM). He became the executive director of ''CFM-Norte'', the northern division of the company, in 1995. He joined the company's board of directors in 2007. From 1993 to 2002, Nyusi served as the President of

Clube Ferroviário de Nampula Clube Ferroviário de Nampula is a Mozambican football club based in Nampula. They play in the top division in Mozambican football, Moçambola. Their home stadium is Estádio do Nampula. From 1993 to 2002, Filipe Nhussi, the current Presiden ...

, a top-division

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club based in

Nampula Nampula is the capital city of Nampula Province in Northern Mozambique. With a population of 743,125 (2017 census), it is the third-largest city in Mozambique after Maputo and Matola. The city is located in the interior of Nampula Province, approx ...

. He is also a lecturer at the Nampula campus of the Universidade Pedagógica, a fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative, and a member of the National Committee of Fighters of the National Liberation Struggle ( pt, Comité Nacional dos Combatentes da Luta de Libertação Nacional). He received further training in management in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Political career

Minister of Defence

Nyusi took office as Minister of Defence on 27 March 2008, succeeding

Tobias Joaquim Dai General Tobias Joaquim Dai (born November 25, 1950) was Minister of National Defence of Mozambique from 2000 to 2008. He took office on January 17, 2000 Nyusi's appointment came almost exactly one year after the fire. The resulting explosions of munitions at the Malhazine

armory Armory or armoury may mean: * An arsenal, a military or civilian location for the storage of arms and ammunition Places *National Guard Armory, in the United States and Canada, a training place for National Guard or other part-time or regular mili ...

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,0 ...

killed more than 100 people and destroyed 14,000 homes. A government-appointed investigative commission concluded that

negligence Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as ...

played a role in the disaster, and Dai "was blamed by many for failing to act on time to prevent the loss of life". In September 2012, Nyusi was elected to the Central Committee of FRELIMO, the ruling party, at its 10th congress."Filipe Nyussi elected Frelimo candidate"
, Mozambique Information Agency, 2 March 2014.

2014 presidential election

On 1 March 2014, the FRELIMO Central Committee elected Nyusi as the party's candidate for the 2014 presidential election. In the first round of voting, he received 46% of the vote—well ahead of the second-place candidate,

Luisa Diogo Luisa (Italian and Spanish), Luísa (Portuguese) or Louise ( French) is a feminine given name; it is the feminine form of the given name Louis (Luis), the French form of the Frankish Chlodowig (German Ludwig), from the Germanic elements ''hlo ...

, but short of the majority needed to win outright. He defeated Diogo in the second round with 68% to her 31%. Although Nyusi was regarded as relatively obscure compared to the other candidates, he was most closely identified with President Guebuza. It was generally believed that the selection of Nyusi as FRELIMO's candidate would enable Guebuza, who was required to step down due to term limits, to retain substantial power after leaving office. Diogo, the defeated candidate, was associated with opposition to Guebuza within the party.Manuel Mucari
"Mozambique's Frelimo selects Guebuza loyalist as presidential candidate"
, Reuters, 2 March 2014.

2019 presidential election

Nyusi and his FRELIMO party won a landslide victory in an election that the opposition branded a "mega fraud". The elections were marked by assassinations and significant intimidation of prominent leaders of opposition parties and election observers. Local elections observers, civil society organizations, the Commonwealth Observer Group, and the European Union Election Observation Mission, reported significant intimidation, violence, and fraud during the election period. State resources, media, and aid for cyclone victims were extensively used in favor of FRELIMO, the ruling party, and its candidates. Nyusi, the incumbent president, was re-elected with 73% of the vote. The main opposition party

RENAMO RENAMO (from the Portuguese , ) is a Mozambican political party and militant group. The party was founded with the active sponsorship of the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in May 1977 from anti-communist dissidents oppose ...

as well as the other opposition parties involved in the elections, contested the results, claiming there were numerous irregularities and accusing FRELIMO of "massive electoral fraud", including hundreds of thousands of "ghost voters". As evidence for the international community,

Ossufo Momade Ossufo Momade (born 30 January 1961) is a Mozambican politician. He has served as president of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), the main opposition party of Mozambique since January 17, 2019. He assumed the presidency of the party afte ...

, the president of RENAMO, transported to Europe a box filled with voting ballots that had been marked in favor of Nyusi before the start of the vote.

Presidency (2015–present)

Nyusi was

inaugurated In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugur ...

for his first term as the fourth president of Mozambique on 15 January 2015, and for his second term on 15 January 2020. During his time in office, Mozambique experienced increased poverty rates. According to the Mozambique Workers' Organization (Portuguese: ''Organização dos Trabalhadores de Moçambique''), 23% of Mozambicans did not have any job or means to earn a living, and most of the unemployed were young. Since 2015, prominent leaders of opposition parties, academics, journalists, and leaders of civil society organizations have been assassinated throughout the country. Several assassination attempts, believed to be ordered by the Nyusi government, were made against the historical leader of opposition party RENAMO, Afonso Dhlakama, who demanded governorship in six provinces he and his party RENAMO had won in the 2014 general election. After the attempts on Dhlakama, war resumed in the traditional bastion of RENAMO in the central region of the country. The war in the central region of Mozambique continues to date. In 2017, another war started in the resource-rich northern region of the country.

Promoting peace and dialogue with Renamo

Since armed conflict re-emerged in 2013, the country has engaged in multiple efforts to secure peace. However, while these processes did not resolve the situation, they provided the platform to advance the peace process further. When the opportunity presented itself in December 2016, President Nyusi reopened dialogue with Renamo’s leadership, through a nationally-owned peace process that involved direct negotiations with the President of Renamo, the late Afonso Dhlakama. As part of the negotiations, President Nyusi travelled to Gorongosa to meet with Dhlakama. This was the first time in the country’s history that a sitting president travelled to Renamo’s stronghold. President Nyusi’s efforts culminated in the signing of the Maputo Accord for Peace and National Reconciliation in August 2019. The occasion was witnessed by Namibia's President-in-Office of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Hage Geingob, the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, Former Presidents of Mozambique (Joaquim Chissano) and Tanzania (Jakaya Kikwete), the President of the Contact Group (Mirko Manzoni) and the Representative of Sant’Egidio Community (Matteo Zuppi). Since the signing of the Accord, both parties have consistently implemented agreements reached leading to the deepening of decentralisation and the implementation of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process. To date, 2,307 DDR beneficiaries (including 153 women), 44% of the total number registered as part of the DDR process, are now beginning their reintegration back into society across the country and have expressed satisfaction with the way the process is being conducted.

Illegal loans

Nyusi is accused of corruption related to illegal loans (also known as "hidden debts") that caused an economic crisis in Mozambique. Between 2013 and 2014, three state-owned companies – Ematum, Mozambique Asset Management (MAM), Proindicus – borrowed $622 million from

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

and $535 million from VTB, ostensibly for a project involving tuna fishing and maritime security. A total of $2.2 billion in hidden loans was uncovered in 2016, which triggered a collapse in the

metical The metical (; plural: ) is the currency of Mozambique, abbreviated with the symbol ''MZN'' or ''MT''. It is nominally divided into 100 centavos. The name ''metical'' comes from Arabic ('' mithqāl''), a unit of weight and an alternative name fo ...

and a default on its debt. International lenders such as the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

withdrew their support for the country. In June 2019 and May 2020, Mozambique's Constitutional Council declared the loans were illegal and void, as they were not approved by the parliament, and ruled that “ expenditure can be assumed, ordered or carried out without being duly registered in the budget of the approved state ... which was not the case.” In March 2019, three former Mozambican officials and five business executives were indicted in New York for their alleged role in the scheme. The

U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United States ...

alleged that the loans were a front for government officials and bankers to enrich themselves. The government of Mozambique brought legal action in the United Kingdom to challenge the validity of the loans, as they were contracted under English law. Privinvest, in their defense, alleged that Nyusi had received payments as campaign contributions. Mozambican law prohibits public officials from receiving personal payments from third parties in connection with their current or former public officials. Credit Suisse and VTB have argued that the Mozambican government is liable to repay the loans. In the legal actions in New York (20 November 2019) and London (15 January 2021), it was alleged that Nyusi was one of the numerous officials who received bribes, in his case at least 2 million dollars and 1 million dollars, respectively. Armando Guebuza, President of Mozambique during the time of the alleged incident, stated during a hearing with attorney general Ana Sheila Marrengula on 30 September 2020 that Nyusi should be arrested to better clarify the loans because the money from the loans that went to Ematum and MAM was intended to guarantee the defense and security of the country, and Nyusi was the Minister of Defense at the time. The independence of the judiciary in Mozambique has been questioned by experts. Guebuza, who was instrumental in ensuring the selection of Nyusi as FRELIMO's candidate to allow Guebuza to retain influence after leaving office, is also listed as a defendant in the legal action in London in the context of the hidden loans. Former Minister of Finance Manuel Chang, who also served in the Guebuza government, was arrested in South Africa on 29 December 2018 at the request of U.S. prosecutors who want Chang extradited to the U.S. to face trial in connection with the loans. Chang has remained in jail in South Africa since then.

Alleged extrajudicial killings

Nyusi's government has been accused of using

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings or forced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in which they are f ...

s (Portuguese: ''esquadrões da morte'') to assassinate individuals in opposition to the Mozambican government. There are also reports and accusations of corpse mutilation and extrajudicial assassinations of civilians by government security forces, including the

Mozambique Defence Armed Forces The Mozambique Defence Armed Forces ( pt, Forças Armadas de Defesa de Moçambique) or FADM are the national armed forces of Mozambique. They include the General Staff of the Armed Forces and three branches of service: Army, Air Force and Navy ...

and the Mozambique Rapid Intervention Police.

Personal life

Nyusi is a member of the Makonde ethnic community. He is married to Isaura Nyusi and has four children, Jacinto, Florindo, Claudia and Angelino. On 3 January 2022, it was announced Nyusi and his wife were in isolation after testing positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

References

External links

* *
Candidate Profile
published by FRELIMO {{DEFAULTSORT:Nyusi, Filipe 1959 births Living people Alumni of the University of Manchester Brno University of Technology alumni Defence ministers of Mozambique FRELIMO politicians Makonde people Mozambican corporate directors Mozambican engineers People from Cabo Delgado Province Presidents of Mozambique