Insecurity in Cabo Delgado favours private security companies – specialist

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Insecurity in Cabo Delgado favours private security companies – specialist

4:12 CAT | 21 Jan 2019

in file CoM

Chatham House director Alex Vines warned today that insecurity in northern Mozambique might seem to favour the presence of private security companies in the region, but called on oil companies and the government to avoid the use of mercenaries.

“There is clearly a role for private security [in the Cabo Delgado region], I have no doubt, but the kind of proposals that Erik Prince has been making are certainly not appropriate to the situation, despite the strong lobbying that he and several of his consultants have been doing,” the director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) Africa Programme at prestigious London-based think-tank Chatham House told Lusa.

Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater Security, a private security company known for its activities in Iraq, and president of the Frontier Services Group (FSG), signed a partnership agreement in December 2017 involving one of the Mozambican state-owned enterprises involved in Ematum’s hidden debt scandal.

The same businessman was also in the media spotlight in May last year for allegedly signing a partnership valued at US$750 million (EUR 660 million) between one of his companies – the Dubai-based Lancaster 6 Group – and Proindicus, another Mozambican company involved in the hidden debt scandal, creating a company called Pro6 and designed to offer security services in the region.

“The fight against the militant sect that has been operating in Cabo Delgado requires a much more subtle approach than the one that Mr. Prince is trying to convince people of the merits thereof,” Vines says.

“Mr Prince is just one of the many people who have offered consultancy and advice to the Mozambican government. But if the Mozambican government is to move towards private security companies, I think they should be chosen with great care.”

Vines also stresses that “whatever happens, it is also necessary that these private security companies work in collaboration with the Mozambican army and security forces”. Using only security companies “will not solve the problem”.

“Any [satisfactory] response to the issue of security in Cabo Delgado implies the involvement of the State in a much more subtle relationship with the population, including a social development dimension,” he states.

Earlier this month, Vines hosted a meeting at Chatham House attended by experts and oil company representatives preparing to start liquefied gas extraction in the region.

Declining to comment on the concerns or intentions of the oil companies with interests in the region – Anadarko, Exxon Mobil, Eni, Galp, etc. on the grounds that the meeting was confidential, but clarified, in general terms, that “the large oil companies on the ground there work in other dangerous regions and are not inexperienced in dealing with conflicts and violent situations”.

“The situation is going to increase production costs and companies will have to consider the need to invest in security, but I don’t think this will stop investment,” he said.

Source: Lusa