As the world is engulfed with battling the COVID 19 outbreak, a different war of gory proportions is playing out in the northern region of Mozambique, home to one of the world’s recent richest gas finds. The region of Cabo Delgado, bordering Tanzania, is playing host to a spate of violence pitting government forces against internal rebels known as RENAMO and insurgents claiming links to ISIS. This violent orgy began in October 2017 but, despite early warning signals about terrorism in Mozambique from the African Union (AU) in February, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) finally acknowledged the existence of a real crisis at its Extraordinary Summit on the 19th of May this year.
The war is a catastrophe threatening to spill across borders to other member states. Despite this, multinational corporations such as French oil company Total, the United State’s EXIM Bank, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell among others are pouring billions of US dollars into gas projects in Cabo Delgado. With casualties running into thousands of deaths, the efficiency of regional institutions in conflict resolution and the influence of multinational corporations in such crises is a moral issue that should be of global concern.
The rundown
The Cabo Delgado province was once the core of the Mozambican national liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. It became the cornerstone for the spread of socialism as a national political ideology. Now, it is a hotspot of outlandish activities.
