Mr Nyusi was first elected by popular vote in 2014 and reelected in 2019 for his second and last five-year term in a landslide. He is the current leader of FRELIMO, the party that has governed Mozambique since its independence from Portugal in 1975. He has served as the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community since August 2020.
During his time in office, President Nyusi has promoted peace and security, and signed multiple agreements with the former rebel group turned political party RENAMO, including the Peace Accord that brought a definitive and lasting peace to Mozambique. Since 2017, the country is grappling with an Islamic insurgency in the gas-rich northernmost province of Cabo Delgado. President Nyusi is credited for successfully mobilizing regional and international support to fighting the insurgents which has somewhat decreased the intensity of the conflict, which has displaced an estimated million people and killed at least 4000. Through his leadership, the country has achieved one of the most successful COVID-19 immunization campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa. During his time in office from 2015 to 2018, the poverty reduction 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 of the central provinces. Mozambique is considered a “partially free” country in the latest Freedom House report which assesses rights and civil liberties worldwide.
