Mozambican Civil War FRELIMO within a year and to form a transitional government in the interim. When this was made known to the public, several thousand Portuguese colonials fled the newly independent country and a clandestine group calling themselves the "Dragons of Death" seized the primary radio transmittor in the capital, Lourenço Marques, and demanded an independent Mozambique without FRELIMO. As a result of the mass exodus of trained professionals, the economy and social organization of Mozambique was shattered on independence. On 25 June 1975 Mozambique became independence from Portugal, with Samora Machel becoming President of the People's Republic of Mozambique. The independence
Independence movements in Mozambique and 1960s, government suppression of radicalism in Mozambique was severe enough that the important national liberation groups all had to carry on their existences outside the country. The first organisation with full intentions toward national liberation was founded by Mozambican exiles in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now Malawi), on October 2, 1960, and called the União Democrática Nacional de Moçambique (UDENAMO). Its founding leader was Adelino Gwambe. Tanganyikan (now Tanzanian) president Julius Nyerere was sympathetic to the nationalists, and in April 1961 UDENAMO moved its headquarters to Tanganyika's capital, Dar es Salaam. Its members at various times included: In