Latest news with #CaboDelgado
Japan Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
'No one supports the children': Hunger plagues Mozambique
Sinhara Omar, a widow and mother of three children, relies on wild tubers and fruits to feed her family in the refugee camp where she lives in Mozambique's gas-rich and conflict-torn Cabo Delgado province. No one comes anymore with food, clothing and blankets to the camp in the city of Pemba, where she has lived since she fled a rebel attack on the northern town of Macomia five years ago. "For a long time, they used to support us, but now they've left us. Everyone manages in their own way. We don't get food or clothes, no one even supports the children anymore," she said. Omar and other families in the refugee camp used to receive help from the charity Association for the Protection of Women and Girls (PROMURA). But U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to freeze some $60 billion in aid has tightened the screw in countries around the world as have other aid cuts by international donors. The cuts hit hard in Mozambique, one of the world's most disaster-prone countries where conflict, climate shocks like floods and droughts, political unrest and economic decline have led to a hunger crisis. Volunteers distribute supplies from the World Food Program to residents after Cyclone Chido in Pemba, Mozambique, in December last year. | REUTERS "We had to stop all the activities of the projects that were funded by USAID," said Erasmo Mature, project manager at PROMURA. Not only are Mozambique residents regularly displaced by cyclones but more than 1.3 million people have fled their homes since Islamic State-linked militants launched an insurgency in Cabo Delgado in 2017, according to aid agencies. The World Food Program says about 5 million people are food insecure in Mozambique and need urgent support. "It's dawn, and we have no idea what to give the children to eat," Omar said. During a visit to Mozambique in February, United Nations officials called for urgent action to address the crisis caused by conflict and the effects of two cyclones — Chido and Dikeledi — in December and January. "Global humanitarian funding is under immense strain," said Joyce Msuya, assistant Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, during the trip. "We cannot abandon Mozambicans at this critical juncture." The U.N. children's agency UNICEF has warned of a "children's emergency" caused by cuts to international aid budgets, with funding for Mozambique forecast to fall 20% by 2026. It says it needs about $43 million this year but so far the budget is only about 35% funded. In last year's devastating drought, fueled by the El Nino climate phenomenon, crops wilted in the fields. Harvests were dismal, and food prices soared. In some districts around the capital Maputo, the effects of the drought are still felt by low-income families who depend largely on subsistence farming. Children pose for a picture in Pemba, Mozambique, in December 2024. | REUTERS In the village of Bobole, Teresa Vilanculos said during the most recent harvest this year, she reaped nothing from her field because the seeds had dried up in the baked soil. She depends upon farming to feed her two grandchildren, and now she has no harvest and no seeds for the next planting season in September. She used to receive seeds through projects funded by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the African Development Bank and food from the Red Cross but this is not available any more, she said. She also sells firewood to make ends meet, but it is not enough to pay for food for her grandchildren. "Here, it's normal for us to go through the day without having something in our mouths," she said. UNICEF says Mozambican children face "unprecedented crises" with 3.4 million of them needing aid now. Only 3% of the $619 million the WFP says it needs for Mozambique has been provided by donors this year, and the agency needs $170 million to provide vital assistance over the next six months to prevent a large-scale hunger crisis. For Vilanculos, support cannot come soon enough. "I just feel so sorry for my grandchildren, because they're not to blame for any of this," she said. "Neither am I, but it's hard to see children depending on the solidarity of others to eat."
Zawya
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Mozambique: Spiralling hunger crisis and violence amid collapsing aid budgets
In a visit to the neglected crisis raging in the north of Mozambique, Egeland described it as at a 'critical tipping point,' sounding the alarm over skyrocketing violence, the devastation from multiple cyclones, and the near collapse of aid lifelines due to global funding cuts. 'In a region suffering from daily atrocities and monthly disasters, I have seen the human toll caused by the global retreat of solidarity and funding. Climate shocks, increasing violence, and spiralling hunger are having a terrible impact on the population. They now stand at the edge of an abyss, with immense suffering ahead unless the world ends its neglect,' said Egeland. Armed attacks in Cabo Delgado surged by 155 per cent in March alone, with 52 atrocities resulting in 153 abductions and 39 killings. The violence has displaced over 1.4 million people to date, while more than 600,000 others who have returned home now face renewed insecurity and little to no assistance. Simultaneously, three consecutive cyclones—Chido, Dikeledi, and Jude—have battered Mozambique in just three months, affecting more than 1.4 million people, and destroying homes, schools, health centres and farmland across several provinces. The compounded crises have pushed nearly five million Mozambicans into critical levels of hunger, with over 900,000 facing emergency conditions—just one step below famine. 'Hunger took hold in Mozambique the moment conflict did,' Egeland said. 'Where bullets fly, crops wither, supply chains collapse, and families are left hungry.' In conflict-hit Cabo Delgado, farming and markets have collapsed; in Nampula and Zambezia, cyclone-damaged crops have left families struggling to survive. Fuel shortages, infrastructure damage, and insecurity are now paralysing aid operations across the country. Humanitarian agencies, including NRC, have been forced to reduce life-saving activities due to lack of funds and growing access challenges, including administrative and bureaucratic restrictions, attacks and ambushes on aid convoys. 'In 2024, we reached over 125,000 people, but the scale of this crisis far outstrips our current capacity,' Egeland said. 'We have been forced to drastically reduce our first line response—such as survival kits and shelters to people left homeless by the latest cyclone—because of the US funding cuts.' The World Food Programme has already halved its assistance, reaching only 520,000 people of the one million targeted in 2024. This year, the number of people receiving food aid is expected to plummet even further to just 250,000, despite the growing number of people in need. 'Mothers I met told me they don't know who they would turn to if we had to stop helping them,' Egeland said. 'They've already had to cut down on their food, and their children are sleeping hungry. I want to be clear that, whatever happens, we are here to stay and deliver, and we must find a way to keep delivering in a world of chaos. 'I call on governments and the private sector to urgently mobilise funding, guarantee safe access for aid workers, and commit to long-term support for the rights and dignity of displaced Mozambicans. Several governments and multinational corporations are in Mozambique for its natural resources, with little returns to the impoverished population.' NRC stresses the need for immediate and sustained international action to avert a full-scale famine, restore food security, and support the country's fragile recovery. This includes urgent investment in agricultural recovery and fisheries support for coastal areas, nutrition for children, and protection for people forced to flee violence. 'Turning our backs now is not an option—for the sake of millions facing starvation, and for our shared humanity,' Egeland said. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
The Independent
06-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Death, violence and endless delay: Inside Africa's most troubled energy project
Campaigners have demanded the UK government pull its funding for a natural gas mega project in Mozambique – alleging that it breaches Britain's human rights and environmental obligations. The project in question is a $20 billion (£15bn) liquified natural gas (LNG) development located in the Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique. The project, called Mozambique LNG, has been halted since 2021 after violence from an Isis-backed group led to 183 contractors being trapped in a hotel for two days, with 10 people killed when apparently trying to escape, including British national Philip Mawer. In all, the ongoing insurgency in the area has resulted in an estimated 6,000 deaths since the conflict began in 2017, with some 600,000 people displaced. In a letter seen by The Independent, campaign group Oil Change International (OCI) argues that the violence and other issues over the protection of the project makes a potential $1.15bn investment by UK Export Finance, a department of the UK government untenable. Continuing to finance the project is also not compatible with environmental commitments made in 2021 to no longer finance fossil fuels abroad, OCI argues. A tale of violence, delay and legal action was never meant to be the story of Mozambique's foray into natural gas, after some 180 trillion cubic feet of gas was discovered off the country's coast in 2010. In 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected 34 per cent GDP growth for Mozambique by 2021. However, actual economic growth was around 2.5 per cent. TotalEnergies, the French energy firm, is currently in the process of trying to re-start the project by the middle of this year. 'The security situation has improved," CEO Patrick Pouyanne told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Gas conference earlier this month. Pouyanne's ambitions received a big boost in March when the US Export-Import Bank re-approved financial support worth $4.7bn for the project, boosting TotalEnergies' hopes of restarting the project. But the future of Mozambique LNG remains up in the air, with the British export credit agency still considering whether to recommit to its $1.15bn pledge – having joining with 33 countries, including the US, to sign a pledge to end public finance for fossil fuel projects abroad while hosting the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021. According to OCI campaigner Adam McGibbon, if the UK pulls out of the deal then the entire financial arrangement is expected to collapse. 'We know of at least one major bank involved in the deal that has said they will also pull out if the UK does,' he says. The legal letter sent by OCI argues that the funding of the LNG project in Mozambique goes against the UK's obligations under international law to promote human rights in business both domestically and abroad. The letter highlights the UN's Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which state that companies and nations must ensure that human rights are respected in relation to business operations. A UK Export Finance spokesperson said: 'UK Export Finance is currently in talks with project sponsors and other lenders regarding the latest status of the LNG production project in Mozambique. 'We take reports of alleged human rights infringement extremely seriously and are looking further into the matters.' 'The Qatar of Africa' Observers at the time the gas was discovered off the coast of Mozambique suggested that the country – one of the world's poorest – could transform into the 'Qatar of Africa'. A number of massive projects aiming to ship the gas around the world in the form of LNG were soon proposed. TotalEnergies' Mozambique LNG project stands out for its sheer size, with the $20bn in financing a figure roughly the same size as Mozambique's entire GDP. The 65 trillion cubic feet of gas it was expected to deliver is the equivalent of six years of current EU gas demand. But in March 2021, the 'force majeure' declaration was made, which enables parties to renege on an agreement due to unforeseen external circumstances. It came after Islamist insurgents captured swathes of territory in the Cabo Delgado region, and at least 1,400 people were left killed or missing presumed dead. Earlier this year French authorities began investigating TotalEnergies over potential corporate manslaughter, after survivors and relatives of victims of the event accused the energy giant of failing to protect its workers. In a statement shared with The Independent, a spokesperson for TotalEnergies said that they will ' cooperate with this investigation', but that 'the company categorically rejects' the accusations. 'Mozambique LNG's teams provided emergency assistance and mobilised their resources to evacuate more than 2,500 people (civilians, employees, contractors, and subcontractors) from the site where the Mozambique LNG project is located at the time of the attacks,' the spokesperson said. But some say the need to resettle people so that the land can used for the project has aided recruitment for the insurgents. 'The local population is being deprived of jobs, in a scenario where pressure on land is increasing, where people are losing access to land, losing access to natural resources,' wrote local analyst Joao Feijo earlier this year. 'The discontent that is created here is very great and this kind of discontent is capitalised on by these violent groups. Many individuals joined this group because they had no other alternative,' he added. Signs of discontent can be found in villagers claiming that they have not been sufficiently compensated for giving up land that most rely on for subsistence farming, according to evidence collected by local NGO Justica Ambiental, after Mozambique LNG was given rights to 6,625 hectares of land to build its liquefaction terminal. 'We agreed that the company would take our areas, but when they took our areas – the forests and fields – and they didn't want to pay us, they denied it,' said Neto Agostino Paulo resident of Macala Village, in footage captured by Justica Ambiental in summer 2024. Fellow Macala villager Adija Momade Sumail Nkabwi said: 'The company came here to lie to us that they were going to compensate us for our property that they had occupied, leaving us with false expectations'. The spokesperson for TotalEnergies told The Independent that prior to the force majeure announcement, 89 per cent of compensation payments had been paid within six months of the signing of compensation agreements, and 66 per cent were paid within 90 days. 'The Force Majeure situation has prevented the full implementation of the relocation and compensation process and has slowed down the exercise,' they said. 'Drill baby, drill' For OCI's Adam McGibbon, the violence and displacement witnessed in Cabo Delgado is a 'classic example of the resource curse': The phenomenon where resource-rich countries with abundant natural resources ironically end up with a multitude of problems. Nigeria and Angola – both oil-rich countries plagued by corruption and inequality – are oft-cited examples of countries to have suffered this fate in Africa. At the same time, it has also been said that given the low living standards of countries like Mozambique, any opportunity to bring in billions of dollars of foreign investment is a good thing. Some, like former Irish President Mary Robinson, have argued that African nations should be allowed to extract natural gas to develop. But there are growing concerns that the economic benefits originally conceived in Mozambique LNG might not ever materialise, even if the project goes ahead as planned. For all the talk of ' Drill baby, drill ' coming from Donald Trump in the White House right now, the prospects of a major new LNG production terminal are much weaker than in 2020. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and subsequently shut off pipeline gas flows to Europe, planned new LNG facilities in the US and Qatar have driven up projections of global LNG capacity. An increase of nearly 50 per cent is currently on the horizon, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This ' LNG glut ', as the IEA describes it, is exacerbated by renewables continually beating targets in Europe and Asia, as well as a global push for 'energy security' that did not exist in 2020, and which is making governments less inclined to rely on expensive liquefied gas imports for energy. 'If and when TotalEnergies' Mozambique LNG project gets off the ground, it will be adding further supply into a market characterised by oversupply and lacklustre demand,' says Simon Nicholas, from IEEFA, a think tank. 'This can hardly be a surprise: There is a long history in Sub-Saharan Africa of fossil fuel projects doing nothing to boost development in the host country.' If global gas markets are oversupplied, there is a risk that Mozambique LNG will become a 'stranded asset', which will plummet in value – or even become a liability for Mozambique. Even a 'moderate-paced transition' away from fossil fuels globally would lead to Mozambique seeing gas revenues of just 20 per cent of what they would be in a slow-paced transition, a report from the think tank Carbon Tracker has found. The authors described countries looking to exploit oil and gas assets for the first time as making a 'significant gamble'. 'Huge economic costs' TotalEnergies has also structured its LNG deals in a way that activists have warned is disadvantageous to Mozambique, with revenues Mozambique set to come in the mid-2030s and 2040s, think tank IISD has said. This means that if the project does not see out its lifespan, TotalEnergies and other partners will have seen an outsize share of profits so far, with Mozambique losing out. Mozambique also faces 'substantial economic risks' related to investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS), a separate report from Columbia University found last year. ISDS are lawsuits where foreign investors sue countries where they have invested if they believe the government has violated the terms of the agreement. Mozambique's international investment agreements allow foreign investors to bypass the national judicial system in such disputes, the report found, while 'stabilisation clauses' protect investments from unexpected regulatory changes or new fiscal rules, potentially preventing Mozambique enacting new legislation to transition away from fossil fuels. 'What they have basically done is said Mozambique cannot invest in climate action without paying huge economic costs,' says Daniel Ribeiro, a Mozambican activist with Justica Ambiental. Such an arrangement is likely to 'only amplify social tensions in Cabo Delgado,' if little money is seen to reach local people while a Western company makes large profits, warns Ribeiro. Given the insurgency, delays, and economic concerns, it might seem the simplest thing for Mozambique to do would be to try and pull out of the deal. However, the country has racked up government debts since gas was discovered, using expected future gas revenues as collateral for borrowing. But expectations have not matched reality. The year 2016 also saw a corruption scandal rock the country after it was found that members of the Mozambican Government had secretly taken out loans for themselves from London-based banks, using assurances of future LNG gas revenues to do so. A 2023 report from Debt Justice found that the Mozambican government has been paying back some of those loans. Mozambique's external national debt more than doubled between 2010 and 2018, according to CEICC data, while Friends of the Earth has warned that potential corruption arising from the 'mere promises of LNG development' may have already cost the country more than any actual profit the project could generate for the country over its lifetime. For Ribeiro, who lives in the Mozambican capital of Maputo, the priority for the country should be investing in renewables and climate change adaptation. 'My main message is that the cost of climate change is going to be far greater than any profits from Mozambique LNG, and that should be the priority,' he says. The country is considered one of the most climate-vulnerable on the continent, exposed to extreme weather concerns including cyclones, droughts and floods. Cyclone Kenneth, which hit Cabo Delgado in 2019, caused damage estimated at $300m. But the Trump administration has a different idea about what is good for the country. Weeks before confirming its $4.7bn loan for Mozambique LNG, the US government shut down the USAID-backed Power Africa programme's operations in the country – with an emphasis on renewable energy – which has been leading efforts to boost energy access, in a country where only 40 per cent of the country's population has access to electricity. 'Cycle of death' The push to resume the Mozambique LNG project also comes despite the fact that the Islamist insurgency very much remains a threat. While insurgents no longer control full towns and villages, they have become more agile, and have stepped up the number of road blocks in recent weeks, according to local media. 'There are still believed to be several insurgency units of hundred or so people, and they still have the ability to make attacks and destabilise the area,' says Ribeiro. 'And every time they suffer losses, they continue to be able to recruit. Why? Because we are still not dealing with the economic and social drivers of the problem,' he adds. The EU is currently funding Rwandan troops to help protect the region - but this arrangement is also under threat due to accusations Rwanda has been supporting rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as allegations that the Mozambican government is using units trained by the EU for protest suppression. For Marisa Lourenço, an independent risk analyst in Southern Africa, the threat of violence is 'definitely still there' in Cabo Delgado. She believes that while TotalEnergies will be able to securely lock down its site on the coast, it remains unclear if doing so is worth the money. 'TotalEnergies can secure the site. But is the infrastructure cost worth it? Will it recoup its sunken costs? Probably not. TotalEnergies rushed into taking on this project, and I think it regrets it,' she believe. For Mozambique, meanwhile, it remains clear for Ribeiro that the best option is for the country to pull out of the project. 'Pulling out will cause a whole host of problems in the short term, but it will help us emerge from this cycle of death,' he says. So long as the project continues, the Western world can turn a blind eye to what is happening in Mozambique, by imagining that it is financially supporting the country, believes Ribeiro. But if the project fails, then the country can focus on other development pathways that actually benefit the people. 'It's like a chronic condition that keeps flaring up, for which there is no cure' he says. 'Sometimes you just need to take the bullet.'
Arab News
29-05-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Militant attacks hit Mozambique as Total readies to resume gas project
MAPUTO: A series of attacks in northern Mozambique this month point to a resurgence of violence by Daesh-linked militants as energy giant TotalEnergies prepares to resume a major gas project, analysts say. The group terrorized northern Mozambique for years before brazenly vowing in 2020 to turn the northern gas-rich Cabo Delgado province into a caliphate. TotalEnergies paused a multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas project there in 2021 following a wave of bloody raids that forced more than a million people to flee. The insurgency was pushed to the background by a months-long unrest that followed elections in October. But there has been a new wave of violence. In May, the Islamists attacked two military installations, claiming to kill 11 soldiers in the first and 10 in the second. A security expert confirmed the first attack and put the toll at 17. There was no comment from the Mozambican security forces. There were two dramatic strikes earlier – a raid on a wildlife reserve in the neighboring Niassa province late April killed at least two rangers, while an ambush in Cabo Delgado claimed the lives of three Rwandan soldiers. Also unusual was a thwarted attack on a Russian oceanographic vessel in early May that the crew said in a distress message was launched by 'pirates,' according to local media. 'Clearly there is a cause and effect because some actions correspond exactly to important announcements in the gas area,' said Fernando Lima, a researcher with the Cabo Ligado conflict observatory which monitors violence in Mozambique, referring to the $4.7 billion funding approved in mid-March by the US Export-Import Bank for the long-delayed gas project. 'The insurgents are seeing more vehicles passing by with white project managers,' said Jean-Marc Balencie of the French-based political and security risk group Attika Analysis. 'There's more visible activity in the region and that's an incentive for attacks.' Conflict tracker ACLED recorded at least 80 attacks in the first four months of the year. The uptick was partly due to the end of the rainy season which meant roads were once again passable, it said. TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said last Friday that the security situation had 'greatly improved' although there were 'sporadic incidents.' The attack that stalled the TotalEnergies project in 2021 occurred in the port town of Palma and lasted several days, sending thousands fleeing into the forest. ACLED estimated that more than 800 civilians and combatants were killed while independent journalist Alex Perry reported after an investigation that more than 1,400 were dead or missing. Rwandan forces deployed alongside the Mozambique military soon afterwards, their number increasing to around 5,000, based on Rwandan military statements. The concentration of forces in Cabo Delgado 'allows insurgents to easily conduct operations in Niassa province,' said a Mozambican military officer on condition of anonymity. The raid on the tourist wildlife lodge straddling Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces was for 'propaganda effect,' said Lima, as it grabbed more international media attention than hits on local villages that claim the lives of locals. Strikes on civilians, with several cases of decapitation reported, often fall under the radar because of the remoteness of the impoverished region and official silence. 'More than 25,000 people have been displaced in Mozambique within a few weeks,' the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said last week. This was in addition to the 1.3 million the UN said in November had been displaced since the conflict began in 2017. 'The renewed intensity of the conflict affects regions previously considered rather stable,' said UNHCR's Mozambique representative Xavier Creach. In Niassa, for example, about 2,085 people fled on foot after an attack on Mbamba village late April where women reported witnessing beheadings. More than 6,000 people have died in the conflict since it erupted, according to Acled.
