The ruling party's new politburo boosts the President's authority, but the two billion dollar debt scandal still casts a shadow
It has not been an easy journey for President Filipe Nyusi, who does not inspire the same personal loyalty as his predecessor, the redoubtable Armando Guebuza. The first Mozambican President without a heroic liberation war past, Nyusi lacks a strong support base. With Guebuza unwilling to concede power, and bloody conflict with the opposition Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo), Nyusi's earlier days were marred by domestic battles on two fronts. Further weakened by the bombshell of more than another billion dollars of hidden debts, which plunged the country into economic crisis and triggered a stand-off with donors, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank, Nyusi initially cut a vulnerable and isolated figure as he struggled to assert himself as leader.
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