Cabo Delgado attacks: NGOs more exposed than gas industry, warns EXX Africa

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Cabo Delgado attacks: NGOs more exposed than gas industry, warns EXX Africa

11:41 CAT | 04 Feb 2020

FILE: For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Interlusofona]

Consultant EXX Africa warned on Friday that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in northern Mozambique are more exposed to attacks than oil companies, which have their own security measures.

“The threat of Islamic insurgency poses a greater risk to non-governmental organisations and humanitarian workers than [it does] to the gas industry,” the analysis by consultancy EXX Africa on violence in northern Mozambique reads.

In the report sent to clients, which Lusa has seen, the director of the consultancy argues that “the armed groups in northern Mozambique have the neither operational capacity nor the desire to attack the natural gas sector in the country”.

“As more aid funds and NGO workers are channelled to northern Mozambique, the prospect of attacks on these targets will increase,” Robert Besseling says.

However, “the combination of counterterrorism measures applied by the Mozambican authorities and the private security measures associated with interests in the gas sector appear to be sufficient to mitigate any latent threat to the gas sector”.

The document claims that a militant group called Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama (ASWJ) has been active in Cabo Delgado province since the end of 2017, particularly in the districts of Macomia, Mocimboa da Praia and Palma.

“Despite its origin as a local grassroots movement, there is increasing evidence that ASJW is recruiting in neighbouring countries, especially in Tanzania and Somalia,” the text states, adding, “There is no visible evolution in operational capacity or in targets’ profile.”

Armed attacks in northern Mozambique have already claimed at least 350 deaths among attackers, residents and Mozambican military personnel, in addition to affecting around 60,000, many forced to abandon their lands and homes, according to the latest revision of the United Nations’ Global Humanitarian Aid Plan to Mozambique.

Mozambican defence and security forces are deployed in the area, but Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi admitted in London two weeks ago that more support was needed to deal with the problem.

Source: Lusa