Mozambique: Italy committed to continued support in Cabo Delgado

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Mozambique: Italy committed to continued support in Cabo Delgado

2:04 CAT | 06 Jul 2022

The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, expressed in Maputo on Tuesday, the commitment of his country to support those affected by the armed conflict in the province of Cabo Delgado, in Northern Mozambique.

The Italian president said that “it is our duty to accompany the people of Cabo Delgado, who are victims and are leaving their areas of origin”.

Sergio Mattarella was speaking to the media moments after being received by Mozambique’s head of state, Filipe Nyusi, in Maputo, as part of a working visit he is making to the African country.

The Italian head of state said that his country would continue to help Mozambique to tackle violent extremism, highlighting Italy’s commitment to the European Union’s support for the reconstruction of the affected region and the training of Mozambique’s forces to deal with the insurgency.

READ: Mozambique: More countries join training mission against terrorism

In total, the European Union (EU) intends to spend €65 million this year on development projects in northern Mozambique, including the region affected by terrorism, a package that is part of wider support for Mozambique’s development for the period 2021-2027, estimated to be at least €428 million for the first four years.

According to Sergio Mattarella, the support to Mozambique for the development of the North and for training the military to fight the insurgency should be taken as a “commitment”.

“These are two commitments that are in line with Mozambique’s needs,” Mattarella said.

READ: EU – Mozambique Political Dialogue: Commitment to a partnership beyond cooperation

Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas but has been terrorised since 2017 by armed insurgents, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.

There are 784,000 internally displaced people due to the conflict, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project.

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with Rwandan support later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has allowed areas where there was a rebel presence to recover, but their flight has provoked new attacks in other districts used as a passage or temporary refuge.

Sergio Mattarella is the first Italian head of state to make an official visit to Mozambique.

The visit comes at a time when Italian oil company Eni is leading the start of natural gas exploitation in the Rovuma basin, via a floating platform stationed some 40 kilometres off Cabo Delgado.

The reserves are among the largest in the world and the only reason why there are not yet more projects to exploit them is due to the armed insurgency in northern Mozambique, which has halted work onshore.

In the case of the offshore platform, gas has started to be pumped for liquefaction and export is to begin in the coming months.
Italy was in 2020, the date of the most recent official statistics, the main destination for Mozambique’s exports to the EU, made up mainly of aluminium.

On the other side of the scale, Italy was the second EU country (after Portugal) on the list of imports, supplying Mozambique mainly with chemicals and metal parts for infrastructure.

Source: Lusa