Mozambique: President inaugurates revamped port, aerodrome destroyed by rebels – Lusa

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Mozambique: President inaugurates revamped port, aerodrome destroyed by rebels – Lusa

2:57 CAT | 10 Oct 2023

Photo: Presidente Filipe Nyusi / Facebook

Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, on Monday inaugurates an aerodrome and port at Mocímboa da Praia, in Cabo Delgado province, in the north of the country – infrastructure destroyed in the attacks by rebel groups but which have been restored in recent months.

On the night of 4 August 2020, the armed groups that have been carrying out attacks in Cabo Delgado since 2017 invaded Mocímboa da Praia, taking over and trashing the aerodrome and port, and with clashes with members of the country’s Defence and Security Forces leaving an unknown number of dead, including members of the maritime force.

Work began on restoring the infrastructure after the security situation stabilised, following the arrival in July 2021 of foreign forces, namely from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

For the port of Mocímboa da Praia, at least $7 million (€6.6 million) have been invested in the new mooring quay and the completion of the channel signalling system, but the work, which will continue, has a total budget of $30 million (€28.4 million), the administrator of the infrastructure, Helenio Turzão, told Lusa.

Work to revamp the aerodrome are budgeted at around 15 million meticais (€222,100), according to data from the Aeroportos de Moçambique administration.

After months in the hands of rebels, Mocímboa da Praia had been looted and almost all public and private infrastructure destroyed, as well as the energy, water, communications and hospital systems.

In all some 62,000 people, almost the entire population, have left the coastal town due to the conflict that began six years ago, especially the mass flight that occurred after the intensification of insurgent actions in June 2020.

Cabo Delgado province has been facing armed insurgency for six years, with responsibility for some attacks claimed by a local affiliate of the extremist group Islamic State.

On the ground fighting the rebels’ attacks – which began in October 2017 and which have hampered the progress of natural gas production projects in the region – are the nation’s armed forces, backed up since July 2021 by forces from Rwanda and the SADC.

The conflict in northern Mozambique has already displaced one million people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and caused around 4,000 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, while Mozambique’s head of state recently admitted to “more than two thousand” fatalities.

Source: Lusa