Category Archives: Mozambique

How did a ‘cocktail of violence’ engulf Mozambique’s gemstone El Dorado?

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Clashes between Isis-linked militants, government troops and mercenaries have displaced 200,000 in mineral-rich Cabo Delgado

For decades a forgotten corner of Mozambique, Cabo Delgado has now become the country’s El Dorado, promising billions in natural gas and gemstones but delivering its population only violence and displacement.

An insurgency in the province now threatens to become further entrenched – 50,000 people have fled their homes since March and Mozambique’s neighbours are currently debating sending in regional forces to help defeat militants who seized a strategic port in the town of Mocímboa da Praia last month.

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Mozambique army surrounds port held by Isis-linked insurgents

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Militants seized the Mocímboa da Praia site, which is near gas projects worth £45bn, last week

Government troops are taking up positions outside a port in the far north of Mozambique which was captured by Islamist extremists last week in the latest escalation of the insurgency in the southern African country.

Hundreds of reinforcements have been rushed into position around the port in the town of Mocímboa da Praia.

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UK could face lawsuit over $1bn aid to Mozambique gas project

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Government accused of hypocrisy for backing scheme while claiming to be leading on climate

The UK government could face a legal battle after offering more than $1bn in financial support to help build a gas project in Mozambique despite its commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

Under the deal, UK taxpayer funds will be used to help develop and export Mozambique’s gas reserves, in one of the largest single financing packages ever offered by a UK credit agency to a foreign fossil fuel project.

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Musicians hit hard by festival cancellations in southern Africa

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Coronavirus has forced events including AfrikaBurn and Bushfire to cancel, leaving performers without promotional platforms and income

In a region where live music is everything – both for audiences and for performers heavily reliant on live appearances to make a living – the widespread cancellation of festivals across southern Africa has hit the music business hard.

May should have seen the Bushfire festival in Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Zakifo and AfrikaBurn in South Africa, and Azgo in Mozambique. Next month would have been Zimfest in Zimbabwe. All have been cancelled – or replaced with online versions – along with dozens of smaller live events that have been growing in recent years, bringing in tourism, showcasing talent and culture, and boosting southern Africa’s music industry.

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Islamist group kills 52 in ‘cruel and diabolical’ Mozambique massacre

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Police say villagers were killed, most beheaded or shot, after some refused to join extremists

An Islamist extremist group in northern Mozambique has killed dozens of villagers in its most bloody attack.

More than 50 people were massacred in an attack in Xitaxi in Muidumbe district after locals refused to be recruited to its ranks, according to police cited by local media. Most were either shot dead or beheaded.

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Mozambique expels suspected Brazilian drug lord

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Gilberto ‘Fuminho’ Aparecido dos Santos arrested in international sting operation

Mozambique has expelled one of Brazil’s most wanted criminals, an alleged drug lord who has been on the run for two decades.

Gilberto “Fuminho” Aparecido dos Santos was sent home on a Brazilian air force plane that left Maputo at 1.30am on Monday with dozens of police officers onboard, the authorities said.

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Man believed to be Brazil’s biggest cocaine supplier arrested in Mozambique

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Gilberto ‘Fuminho’ Aparecido dos Santos caught after more than 20 years on the run

One of Brazil’s most wanted people, an alleged drug baron accused of running international cocaine operations for the country’s biggest gang, has been arrested in Mozambique.

Gilberto “Fuminho” Aparecido dos Santos, believed to be the leader of the First Capital Command (PCC), was arrested in an international sting that included agents from Brazil, Mozambique and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Mozambican police confirmed the arrest on Tuesday.

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Vigilantes kill eight people in Malawi amid fear of ‘bloodsuckers’

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President condemns mob justice and says fears of a cult are baseless rumours designed to sow fear and panic

Vigilante groups have killed at least eight people in northern Malawi claiming to be protecting communities from “bloodsuckers”, a local official has said.

The latest victims were from Mozambique and were attacked on Monday while travelling to Tanzania through Malawi’s northern region.

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Sixty-four Ethiopians found dead in truck in Mozambique

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Bodies found in cargo container alongside 14 survivors

Sixty-four people from Ethiopia have been found dead crammed inside a freight container in north-west Mozambique, a senior hospital official has said.

The victims were discovered on Tuesday in a blue cargo container loaded on to a truck in the province of Tete. They were surrounded by survivors. Daily temperature highs in Tete are currently about 34C (93F).

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‘People still hurt’: the forgotten survivors of Cyclone Idai

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A year after eastern Zimbabwe was devastated by one of the worst storms on record, many people remain amid the wreckage living in makeshift shelters

The sound of the rising wind and the heavy rain trigger fear at Garikai camp in Ngangu, Chimanimani, eastern Zimbabwe.

Villagers here are haunted by traumatic memories of the aftermath of the cyclone that swept over this region last March, when they were forced to bury the dead in makeshift coffins. Some people have never found their loved ones.

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Facebook removes Africa accounts linked to Russian troll factory

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Fake networks in eight nations are connected to man allegedly behind disinformation empire

Facebook has taken down accounts linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin – the businessman allegedly behind Russia’s notorious troll factory – which were actively seeking to influence the domestic politics of a range of African countries.

The company said on Wednesday it had suspended three networks of “inauthentic” Russian accounts. The Facebook pages targeted eight countries across the continent: Madagascar, the Central African Republic (CAR), Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya.

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Andrew Mitchell and Justine Greening back calls for foreign loan transparency

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Former international development secretaries among 50 British MPs urging introduction of tighter regulations on disclosure

Three former international development secretaries are among 50 British MPs urging the British chancellor to take “strong action” to increase transparency on loans to governments, in advance of next month’s G20 meeting.

Citing the alleged involvement of UK-based companies in secret loans to Mozambique, Andrew Mitchell, Justine Greening and Hilary Benn joined parliamentarians from every party in calling for regulations to ensure loans to governments are publicly disclosed.

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‘Simple mistakes have big impact’: the man with a tablet for making aid better

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Struck by failings in the implementation of health projects, a Mozambican entrepreneur has turned to tech for a solution

The limited success of foreign-backed projects to fight diseases in Africa is down to basic misunderstanding about how to communicate even the simplest messages, a Mozambican education entrepreneur has said.

Dayn Amade, founder of Maputo-based technology company Kamaleon, is calling for the World Health Organization and aid groups to reassess how people on the African continent are educated about disease prevention.

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Mozambique: people trapped in rising floods as Cyclone Kenneth batters country – video report

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Five people are dead and aid workers have reported scenes of destruction in the wake of Cyclone Kenneth, the second tropical cyclone to lay waste to swathes of Mozambique in five weeks. Rescuers have moved in to help people trapped by rapidly rising flood water in the northern city of Pemba, a United Nations spokesman said, as the storm dumps more rain on the region

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Five dead and homes flattened after cyclone hits Mozambique

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People trapped by rising flood water as Cyclone Kenneth dumps more rain on the region

Five people have died and aid workers have reported scenes of destruction in the wake of Cyclone Kenneth, the second tropical cyclone to lay waste to swathes of Mozambique in five weeks.

Rescuers have moved in to help people trapped by rapidly rising flood water in the northern city of Pemba, home to 200,000 people, a United Nations spokesman said, as Kenneth dumped more rain on the region.

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Cyclone Kenneth: UN says Mozambique may need another huge aid effort

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Still reeling from Cyclone Idai, country hit by its strongest ever recorded storm

The destruction caused by Cyclone Kenneth, the strongest storm on record to hit Mozambique, may require another massive aid effort in a country still reeling from the year’s first tropical cyclone, the UN has said.

With high winds and torrential rain, Kenneth made landfall in the country’s north on Thursday night, five weeks after Cyclone Idai devastated its centre.

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Cyclone Idai: ‘My family needs to eat, I don’t know how we will survive’

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In Mozambique, where many people rely on crops to live, Idai’s impact on two key agricultural areas has been devastating

Marie Jose stares out at her field of broken maize stalks, the cobs yellow and mouldy from days of excessive water followed by weeks of extreme sun. She should have harvested them last month, but Cyclone Idai struck her village in Buzi district, in central Mozambique, and destroyed them all.

She is still dealing with the trauma of losing her grandparents and niece to the tropical storm. “They couldn’t hold on in the trees where we were sitting and the wind pushed them into the water,” she says. Their bodies are still missing.

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Cyclone Idai caused $2bn of damage and affected millions, says World Bank

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Global lender says the cyclone affected about 3 million people, damaging infrastructure and livelihoods

A strong cyclone that cut a deadly swath through Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe last month is expected to cost the three countries more than $2bn, the World Bank has said.

Early estimates pointed to Cyclone Idai costing $2bn “for the infrastructure and livelihood impacts,” the World Bank said in a statement after a meeting in Washington on Thursday.

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