Senior Researcher at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), Liesl Louw-Vaudran, says local discontent about the lack of benefits from the massive liquid gas project at Palma in northern Mozambique may be a major component fuelling the violent insurgency that has claimed a number of lives.
However, growing local discontent is also believed to be fuelling the insurgency, just south of the Tanzanian border. Palma is adjacent to gas projects worth close to one trillion rand – led by international oil firms including Total. Louw-Vaudran says the root cause of the unrest is the frustration of Mozambican locals.
” The root causes of the insurgency, the instability and conflict in Cabo Delgado are the same in many other parts of Mozambique, marginalisation, frustration, being thrown off their land because of mining activities and then, of course, this massive investment in the liquid natural gas that came into Cabo Delgado. It was clear almost from the beginning that local people would not be benefiting from the spillover of this investment. ”
South Africans reportedly escaped ambush
A number of South Africans appear to have escaped an ambush, apparently by ISIS-linked fighters, at Palma in northern Mozambique, just south of the border with Tanzania.
Reuters quotes security and diplomatic sources as saying at least one person was killed during the escape and a number were wounded.
Mozambique’s government had said that security forces were working to restore order in Palma, which is adjacent to gas projects worth close to one trillion rand after it came under a three-pronged attack on Wednesday.
Many South Africans as well as people from other countries are employed at the massive gas facility. This woman, who wants to remain anonymous, says she has received information about her loved ones in Mozambique.
“This afternoon we got word that the rescue operation, the evacuation had to be stopped because they were shooting at the helicopters again, there was no help from the government. They were surrounded and they decided to make a run for it because they could not be evacuated. The chopper could not come anywhere close to them. So they decided to make a run for it, they got into vehicles. It’s said to be there were 17 vehicles and only seven went through the ambush.”
Anonymous on her loved ones’ evacuation attempt:
President Cyril Ramaphosa has been meeting with the security cluster amid reports that South Africans are among those killed in fighting around the gas hub town of Palma.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
