Palma: Offensive may be intent on forcing negotiations with multinationals – Raúl Domingos

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Palma: Offensive may be intent on forcing negotiations with multinationals – Raúl Domingos

7:56 CAT | 01 Apr 2021

Former Renamo negotiator Raúl Domingos has just been appointed March 31 by the President to the State Council. He says the attack on the town may represent a jihadist strategy to force negotiations with the multinationals investing in the natural gas exploration project there.

The recent fighting between insurgents and Mozambique’s Defence and Security Forces (FDS) in the town of Palma, in Cabo Delgado province, continues to provoke several readings, mainly due to the lack of information, the government’s silence, and the prevention of access to the region by the independent press.

Raúl Domingos says the attack on the town may represent a jihadist strategy to force negotiations with the multinationals investing in the natural gas exploration project there.

Domingos, a negotiator of the 1992 peace agreement between the Mozambican (Frelimo) government and Renamo, has no doubt that this group wants to profit from menacing the gas project.

He says that the insurgents, already having the port of Mocímboa da Praia under their control, are now trying to move on Palma, “as a way of forcing a negotiation with the multinationals investing in the liquefied natural gas project in Afungi”.

Raúl Domingos is disappointed that the FDS were taken by surprise. “This is a negative sign, because they should be concerned with towns such as Palma, Mocímboa da Praia and others, which are strategic from an economic point of view,” he says.

In his opinion, the intelligence services, “including the State Intelligence and Security Services (SISE), are not delivering, and this is a weakness that must be overcome”.

Meanwhile, the Renamo opposition party regrets what it calls the silence of the President of the Republic regarding the war in Cabo Delgado.

Deputy José Manteigas, who is also head of the Renamo Information Office, says that, taking into account the weaknesses of the FDS, he does not see how it is possible to guarantee the safety of communities and the operations of the Total oil company.

“What we are noticing is that the Defence and Security Forces, instead of being on the offensive, are on the defensive, and in a very fragile way,” he says.

Speaking on behalf of Renamo, he said he regretted the head of state’s silence regarding the situation in Cabo Delgado. “We are at war,” Manteigas says, but, “unfortunately, the President of the Republic is not activating the mechanisms to decree this war.”

Source: Voa Portugues