Category Archives: Mozambique

At least four killed after tropical Storm Ana hits Malawi and Mozambique

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Search and rescue operations under way as dozens reported missing in region battered by extreme weather in recent years

At least four people have died and dozens are missing after strong winds and heavy downpours wreaked havoc in Malawi and Mozambique as Tropical Storm Ana made landfall on Monday.

Almost 16,000 people in the south of Malawi have been affected, according to the Red Cross, as search and rescue operations continue after the first cyclone of the region’s season. At least two people were killed and 66 injured in Mozambique on Monday and a further two people died on Tuesday in Malawi.

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New head of Unesco world heritage centre wants to put Africa on the map

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Lazare Eloundou Assomo wants to address imbalance that benefits rich nations and protect sites threatened by climate crisis and war

It covers 9 million sq miles (24m sq km) from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and from the Sahara in the north to Cape Point in the south. And in between lie some of the world’s most ancient cultural sites and precious natural wonders.

However, despite its vast size, sub-Saharan Africa has never been proportionately represented on Unesco’s world heritage list, its 98 sites dwarfed by Europe, North America and Asia.

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UK ‘embarrassed’ into funding Mozambique gas project, court hears

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Friends of the Earth cites documents suggesting UK’s reputation could suffer if it pulled $1.15bn of promised support

The UK was “embarrassed” into funding a huge gas project in Mozambique while considering ending overseas support for fossil fuels, a court has heard.

During a three-day high court hearing, Friends of the Earth highlighted government documents that suggested there would be “obvious repercussions” if the government did not follow through on $1.15bn of support to an offshore pipeline and liquefied natural gas plant in Cabo Delgado province.

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Return to the refugee camp: Malawi orders thousands back to ‘congested’ Dzaleka

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People who’ve integrated into society are expected to return to the country’s oldest refugee camp, as cost of living and anti-refugee sentiment rises

Dzaleka, Malawi’s first refugee camp, is about 25 miles north of the capital Lilongwe. Built 25 years ago in response to a surge of people fleeing genocide and wars in Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it was then home to between 10,000 and 14,000 refugees. But the camp now houses more than 48,000 people from east and southern African countries – four times more than its initial capacity.

Several hundred continue to arrive each month, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), and in August 181 babies were born there. The deteriorating situation in neighbouring Mozambique is swelling the numbers further, as is the government’s recent decree that an estimated 2,000 refugees who had over the years left Dzaleka to integrate into wider Malawian society should go back, citing them as a possible danger to national security.

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Credit Suisse fined £350m over Mozambique ‘tuna bonds’ loan scandal

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Bank also pleads guilty to wire fraud and forgives hundred of millions of dollars of debt owed by country

Credit Suisse has been fined nearly £350m by global regulators, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, and agreed to forgive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of debt owed by Mozambique in an attempt to draw a line under the long-running “tuna bonds” loan scandal.

The Swiss banking company had been accused of “serious” failings in its financial crime controls by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice that will put the bank under heavy monitoring for three years after having “defrauded US and international investors”.

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‘I ran, my heart was broken’: inside Mozambique’s evolving Cabo Delgado conflict

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The oil firms have fled and an Isis-affiliated insurgency has engulfed the region. As foreign troops begin to arrive, hundreds of thousands face desperate journeys to try to find safety

  • Photographs by Ed Ram/The Guardian

Pencils scratch as students in year eight feverishly work through an exam paper. At the back of the classroom, Clara Edna Chevambo, 37, a minute figure in hand-me-down clothes, finishes first and hands her paper to the teacher. As she leaves, her 11-year-old daughter is arriving for afternoon class. A vegetable farmer who supported, clothed and fed five children, her mother and her grandmother, Chevambo is now living in a borrowed tent in a camp, one of the ones with something to do to fill a few hours.

“I’m in school every day, and I don’t want to miss class. I send my daughter to school every day.”

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Mozambique: fears of escalating conflict as foreign troops clash with Islamists

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Fighting between Rwandan forces and insurgents linked to Islamic State breaks out in Cabo Delgado

Foreign troops sent to reinforce local security forces in Mozambique have clashed with Islamist militants for the first time, as the conflict in the east African country moves into a new and potentially dangerous phase.

Rwandan soldiers who recently arrived in Mozambique fought a series of engagements against the extremists last week. Few reliable details of the fighting, which took place near Mozambique’s border with Tanzania, have emerged, but officials claim the insurgents suffered dozens of casualties.

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Isis-linked groups open up new fronts across sub-Saharan Africa

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Military victories combined with new alliances and shifts in strategy reinforce militants’ position across much of continent

Islamic State’s affiliates in Africa are set for major expansion after a series of significant victories, new alliances and shifts in strategy reinforced their position across much of the continent.

Following recent gains in Nigeria, the Sahel, in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Isis propaganda published by the group’s leadership in its heartland in the Middle East is increasingly stressing sub-Saharan Africa as a new front which may compensate the group for significant setbacks elsewhere.

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Contractors accused of rescuing white workers first after Mozambique attack

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Amnesty International says private military firm in Cabo Delgado abandoned others to their fate

Survivors of a recent attack by Islamist insurgents in Mozambique have told Amnesty International that private military contractors prioritised white workers for evacuation as the extremists closed in during days of confused fighting.

An estimated 220 civilians sought refuge in the Amarula hotel in Palma, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, during the attack in late March.

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Mozambique insurgency: 20,000 still trapped near gas plant six weeks after attack

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People fleeing militant violence near Total’s Afungi project in Cabo Delgado have been blocked by government forces

More than 20,000 Mozambicans have been trapped near a huge natural gas project in the country’s Cabo Delgado province, more than a month since it was abandoned after a militant attack.

People camped at the gates of French energy company Total’s Afungi site have had been unable to escape, despite fears of imminent violence, and have limited food because the Mozambican government has blocked humanitarian access.

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Escaped girls tell of insurgents’ mass abductions in Mozambique

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Interviews undermine the US state department claim that extremist group has links to Islamic State

Insurgents in Mozambique have abducted hundreds of women and girls, forcing many into sexual relations with fighters and possibly trafficking others elsewhere in Africa, interviews with some who have escaped the extremists reveal.

Most of the abducted women are under 18, with the youngest about 12 years old. They are being held in a series of camps and bases across insurgent-controlled territory in north-eastern Mozambique.

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‘Out of Trump playbook’: UK accused of ‘abandoning’ women with cuts to aid

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Charity warns of 22,000 additional deaths in poorest countries if Wish reproductive health programme ends

The director of a leading sexual and reproductive health charity has accused the government of “abandoning” women and girls it promised to help, as aid cuts derail a leading Tory programme to reduce maternal deaths and prevent unsafe abortions in poor countries.

The threat to the women’s integrated sexual health (Wish) programme could mean 7.5m additional unintended pregnancies, 2.7m unsafe abortions and 22,000 maternal deaths over the next year, said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, director general of International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

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Mozambique: French energy giant Total withdraws after militant attacks

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Dozens of people have died in the attacks launched by Islamic State-linked insurgents

French energy company Total has withdrawn all its staff from its Afungi natural gas site in northern Mozambique, sources say, as clashes between Islamic State-linked fighters and the military rage nearby.

The company, which last week called off the planned resumption of construction at the $20bn development due to the violence, declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

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Ferry brings 1,200 survivors of Isis Mozambique massacre to safety

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Boat docks in Pemba carrying those rescued from Islamic State insurgency in north of country

A boat carrying 1,200 survivors of a deadly attack by Islamic State-linked insurgents in northern Mozambique has reached safety in the port of Pemba, some of them crying on arrival after spending days hiding in the bush.

Aid workers were at the port to give food to those disembarking the ferry, while police and soldiers controlled crowds of people excited to see relatives rescued during the attack that began last week in Palma, a Reuters reporter at the port said.

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Mozambique: dozens dead or missing in deadly attack – video

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At least seven people are dead and up to 60 unaccounted for after an ambush by Islamist militants on a convoy in northern Mozambique on Friday. 

On Wednesday, the insurgents had targeted the northern town of Palma, where many foreign contractors work for a multibillion-dollar liquified natural gas project run by the French energy company Total, attacking local people and hotels sheltering foreign workers  

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Isis claims deadly attack in northern Mozambique

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Attack on port town of Palma has forced hundreds of people to flee amid fierce fighting

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a town in northern Mozambique last week that forced hundreds of foreign contractors to flee amid fierce fighting.

Local police and soldiers were reported to have secured control of most of Palma on Monday, after hundreds of Islamist insurgents who overran the small port last week withdrew to surrounding forests and fields leaving a trail of devastation.

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Mozambique: up to 60 missing after insurgents attack convoy

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Seven confirmed dead and several more injured after assault on Palma, near a large gas project

As many as 60 people – mostly foreign citizens – are unaccounted for following a deadly ambush on their convoy by Islamist militants in northern Mozambique.

According to recordings of security calls reviewed by the Guardian describing the aftermath of the attack, only seven vehicles in a convoy of 17 made it to safety after the attack on Friday, with seven confirmed dead and many injured in the recovered vehicles. Everyone in the other vehicles is assumed dead.

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Mozambique: several dead as insurgents seize control of town

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At least one foreign worker among those killed after assault on Palma, near a huge gas project

Islamist militants seized control of a town in northern Mozambique, killing several people including at least one foreign worker, near a huge gas project involving France’s Total and other energy companies, security sources said on Saturday.

Militants raided the town of Palma in the northern province of Cabo Delgado on Wednesday, forcing nearly 200 people including foreign gas workers to be evacuated from a hotel where they had sought refuge.

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Mozambique: 180 workers trapped in hotel amid insurgent attack

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Military tries to airlift people to safety from strategic port town of Palma, near Total gas project

More than 180 people, including expatriate workers, have been trapped inside a hotel in a northern Mozambique town under attack by insurgents for three days.

The military was trying on Friday to airlift the workers to safety from Palma town which is situated near the multibillion-dollar gas site on the Afungi peninsula in Cabo Delgado province, according to the trapped workers.

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Fighting rages in Mozambique close to Total’s gas project

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Islamist insurgents have attacked strategic port town of Palma, near gas operations on Afungi peninsula

Helicopter gunships have exchanged fire with Islamist insurgents as fighting raged for a second day around a strategic town in northern Mozambique.

The town of Palma was attacked earlier this week in a three-pronged assault by rebel fighters which was launched just hours after Total, the France-based oil and gas company, announced that it would resume work on its multibillion-dollar liquified natural gas project nearby.

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