The military wing of FRELIMO was commanded by Filipe Samuel Magaia , whose forces received training from Algeria . The FRELIMO guerrillas was armed with a variety of weapons , many provided by the Soviet Union and China . Common weapons included the Mosin – Nagant bolt @-@ action rifle , SKS and AK @-@ 47 automatic rifles and the Soviet PPSh @-@ 41 . Machine guns such as the Degtyarev light machine gun was widely used , along with the DShK and the SG @-@ 43 Gorunov . FRELIMO was supported by mortars , recoilless rifles , RPG @-@ 2s and RPG @-@ 7s , Anti @-@ aircraft weapons such as the ZPU @-@ 4 and from 1974 the Strela 2 .