Mozambique: More Than 200,000 Register for Military Service

Maputo — A total of 214,909 young Mozambicans registered for military service during this year's registration period, which ran from2 January to 29 February. 

 The figure was released on Thursday during a National Seminar in Maputo on the Organisation and Functioning of the Recruitment and Mobilisation Centres.

The Ministry of Defence set a registration target of 170,000, and this was easily surpassed. The figure reached was 126.42 per cent of the target. Some provinces did even better - Maputo City, with a target of 19,000, registered 30,119 (158.52 per cent of the target). Maputo province also reached 158 per cent of its target, Zambezia 154 per cent, and Nampula 121 per cent.

But these apparently high figures could only be achieved because the original target was so modest.

Mozambique: More Than 200,000 Register for Military Service

Under the law on military service, all Mozambicans, men and women, are supposed to register in the year of their 18th birthday. This year all those born in 1998 should have registered. Registration was also open to anyone who failed to register in previous years, and had not yet reached the cut off age of 35.

From the projections made by the National Statistics Institute (INE), based on the population census of 2007, we know that this year 549,000 Mozambicans celebrate their 18th birthday. The Ministry's target was only 31 per cent of this figure, and the number who actually registered is 39 per cent of the 18 year olds.

As in previous years, the great majority of young Mozambicans did not register for military service. Either the Defence Ministry is unaware of the publicly available projections from the census, or it fully expects most 18 year olds not to register.