Mozambique: Cabo Delgado violence affects country’s economic outlook – IMF | Watch

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Mozambique: Cabo Delgado violence affects country’s economic outlook – IMF | Watch

9:08 CAT | 15 Apr 2021

Screen grab: IMF

The director of the African department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday said that the violence in northern Mozambique had to be addressed as swiftly as possible, warning that the conflict influences the evolution of the country’s economy.

“What is going on in Cabo Delgado, in Palma, is just horrendous, all the more so because this latent insurgency has been identified as a threat several for many years,” Abebe Aemro Selassie said at a press conference presenting the Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa report in Washington on Thursday.

“Unless this is dealt with appropriately, the conflict could have an important bearing on the outlook of the country, the gas production, on which the country hopes to rely on going forward. So, it is indeed, something that needs to be addressed as swiftly as possible,” the director of the Fund’s African department said.

The IMF expects Mozambique to recover from last year’s 0.5% recession and grow by 2.1% this year and 4.7% in 2022.

Watch Abebe Selassie’s press briefing, in full, below. Statements on Mozambique from 41.11.

The armed violence in Cabo Delgado has been going on for three and a half years but took a new escalation on 24 March when armed groups attacked the village of Palma, which is about six kilometres from the multi-billion dollar natural gas projects.

The incursion caused dozens of deaths and forced thousands of Palma residents to flee, worsening a humanitarian crisis that has left more than 2,500 people dead, according to Lusa, and has displaced around 700,000 persons since the beginning of the conflict according to United Nations data.

Source: Lusa / IMF