EnvJustice

Resources to understand the current situation:

Awful attacks in Palma, Cabo Delgado province (Mozambique) that began the 24th of March, exposed failure for Total’s onshore development of liquefied natural gas (LNG). 

Read Joseph Harlon’s opinion article for more context: Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado insurgency has a complex reality.

The gas project of Cabo Delgado province lead to displacement of farming and fishing communities who lose their livelihoods, giving major incentives for the youth to join Islamist rebel groups.

Background in the EJAtlas: Mozambique Gas Development Project, villagers dispossessed for off shore drilling, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.

Despite the rise of violent insurgency in the area, gas development proceeded. Afungi Airstrip and workers’ camps, constructed to serve the project, became the epicentre of the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the country last year.

Situation explained in the EJAtlas: Afungi LNG airport and construction camps, Mozambique.

A report from 2020 by Friends of the Earth France, Mozambique and International exposes how the French state and companies fuel violence and devastation in Cabo Delgado’s gas exploitation

Find the Executive report in English Gas in Mozambique: A windfall for the industry, a curse for the country

Find the full report in French.

The extractive gas industry in Mozambique has done more damage than good for Mozambicans.

“If the Mozambican government does not correct this exploitative relationship with foreign corporations and focus its efforts on improving the lives of its own people and making local communities climate-resilient, the country is headed for a disaster“. Ilham Rawoot, from Friends of the Earth Mozambique/ Justiça Ambiental, predicting the disaster last year revealed by the recent attacks of Palma.

Read the full article: Gas-rich Mozambique may be headed for disaster.

Joseph Hanlon, editor of Mozambique News Reports and Clippings, says: “We are entering into a very difficult period in which the greed and corruption of Frelimo is the root of the civil war in Cabo Delgado”. 

Cyril Zenda’s article What is mozambican government trying to hide talks about how the Mozambican government has launched a brutal crackdown on the media.