Mozambique: African Energy Chamber suggests amnesty for Cabo Delgado insurgents

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Mozambique: African Energy Chamber suggests amnesty for Cabo Delgado insurgents

3:20 CAT | 14 Jan 2021

FILE PHOTO - Paquitequete, Pemba, Capital of Cabo Delgado province. [File photo: Lusa]

The African Energy Chamber on Wednesday suggested an amnesty for insurgents in northern Mozambique, arguing that the problem is not just military and that efforts need to be coordinated to ensure a lasting solution.

“I won’t sugar-coat it: The situation in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province is dire,” writes NJ Ayuk, executive president of this organisation, which is aimed at promoting investment in Africa. “The violence is now escalating and intensifying the misery in the area,” he says. “People live in constant fear.”

For NJ Ayuk, the answer has to be multidimensional and include, among other measures, ensuring a “safe way out” for the combatants, in order to give them confidence.

“Our strategy must also consider the concerns of those who already have been recruited into the insurgency. Rebels need to feel they have another option – not just that their communities will be treated fairly, but also that they and their families can safely move forward,” NJ Ayuk says.

“To achieve this, Mozambique’s government should be prepared to create an amnesty deal for the rebels. Government leaders will need to reach out to militant groups and begin a confidence- and trust-building process that will, hopefully, culminate in a mutual ceasefire agreement.” Such a ceasefire must be followed “by a disarmament and demobilisation project – one that oil companies in the area should back”.

Also read: OP-ED: Ending violence in Mozambique will require united effort; African Energy Chamber stands ready to assist – By NJ Ayuk

In the extensive communiqué released yesterday, the AEC president states that he is willing to help, while underlining that “throwing money at the problem” does not solve it, and that it is necessary to ensure that the people who feel abandoned are part of the solution and that part of the revenues from gas exploration are used to improve their lives.

“There is hope. There is a path to a lasting solution. And the African Energy Chamber would like to help. Our goal is to offer solutions and to finance peacebuilding measures and a negotiation initiative,” he says, rejecting the idea of “paying the militants in hopes of appeasing them, as some have proposed”.

Also read: Mozambique: Nyusi offers to pardon terrorist recruits – AIM report

Mozambique: President may pardon youths recruited by terrorists in Cabo Delgado – O País

Armed violence in Cabo Delgado, where Africa’s largest private multinational investment (in natural gas exploitation) is ongoing, started three years ago and is causing a humanitarian crisis, with more than 2,000 deaths and 560,000 people displaced, without adequate housing or food, mainly to the provincial capital, Pemba, and environs.

Some of the raids have, since 2019, been claimed by the jihadist ‘Islamic State’ group.

Analysts have warned of the negative impact of these clashes on natural gas exploration by multinational oil companies, with France’s Total having already started to reduce the workforce at its facilities because of the security situation.

Source: Lusa