occupation of the town of Mapai in 1977. During one such raid, Rhodesian forces freed FRELIMO ex-official André Matsangaissa from a re-education camp. He was given military and organisational training and installed as the leader of the fledgling movement known as the Mozambique Resistance, which had been founded by the Rhodesian secret service before the independence of Mozambique in 1975 as an intelligence gathering group on FRELIMO and ZANLA. It was created in Salisbury, Rhodesia under the auspices of Ken Flower, head of the Rhodesian CIO, and Orlando Cristina, a former anti-guerrilla operative for the Portuguese. RENAMO subsequently started operating in the Gorongosa region in order to destabilise the FRELIMO government and its support for the ZANLA movement against Rhodesia. RENAMO was composed of several anti-communist dissident groups which appeared immediately prior to, and shortly following, Mozambican independence. RENAMO's ranks included a number of Mozambican political exiles opposed FRELIMO on principle, including FRELIMO defectors disillusioned with its Marxist–Leninist ideology. In 1979, Matsangaissa died in RENAMO's unsuccessful first attack on a major regional centre (Vila Paiva) and RENAMO was quickly ousted from the region. Subsequently, Afonso Dhlakama became the new leader of RENAMO and with extensive South African support it quickly organised itself into an effective guerilla army. Other rebel groups, initially independent of RENAMO, also fought the FRELIMO government. The Revolutionary Party of Mozambique (PRM), founded by Amos Sumane in 1974 or 1976, waged a low-level insurgency in the northern provinces of Zambezia, Tete and Niassa from 1977. Sumane was captured in 1980 and executed by the Mozambican government in 1981. PRM merged with RENAMO in 1982. In 1987, Gimo Phiri, who had succeeded Sumane in 1980 and later become a senior figure in RENAMO, created a splinter group, called UNAMO, which briefly fought both RENAMO and FRELIMO, before permanently joining the government side in 1988. Other rebel factions during the conflict included COREMO, UNIPOMO, and FUMO. RENAMO strategies and operations Having fought the Portuguese using guerrilla strategies, FRELIMO was now forced to defend itself against the very same methods it employed against the colonial regime. It had to defend vast areas and hundreds of locations, while RENAMO operated out of a few remote camps, carrying out raids against towns and important infrastructure. Furthermore, RENAMO systematically forced civilians into its employment. This was done by mass abduction and intimidation, especially of children in order to use them as soldiers. It