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French energy giant Total has shut down operations and removed all personnel from a site in northern Mozambique following last week’s deadly jihadist attack in the area, security sources said on Friday.
“Total is gone,” a security source in Maputo told AFP, adding that “it will be difficult to persuade them to return” this year.
And a military source added, “all the facilities are abandoned.
“Total made the decision to evacuate all its personnel” after drone surveillance showed that the insurgents were in areas “very close” to the gas plant in Afungi.
Another source confirmed that there were reports that the insurgents were not far from the scene.
The Afungi peninsula is only 10 kilometers (six miles) from the city of Palma, which was attacked more than a week ago, killing dozens of people, including at least two expatriate workers.
The brazen assault on March 24 was the latest in a series of more than 830 raids organized by Islamist militants over the past three years, during which more than 2,600 people were killed.
Total had already evacuated some staff and suspended construction works in late December after a series of violent attacks near its complex.
But last week’s raid is considered the largest escalation of the Islamist insurgency to ravage the Cabo Delgado province since 2017.
Many civilian survivors fled their homes and flocked to the heavily secured gas plant.
‘Compromised security’
An estimated 15,000 people have gathered near the site, while more are still arriving and “security is compromised,” another source said.
The “humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate,” added the source.
Total’s cleanup came when Afungi army commander Chongo Vidigal declared on Thursday that the gas project was “protected.”
“We are currently in the Afungi special area and we never had a terrorist threat,” he said.
Total did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Most of the media was cut off after the Palma attack began.
Thousands of troops have been deployed to Cabo Delgado, but Mozambique’s ability to fight the insurgency has long been questioned, with analysts pointing to poor training and a lack of equipment.
The government security forces are also supported by a private South African military company, Dyck Advisory Group (DAG).
Total and its partners planned to invest $ 20 billion in the project, the most ever for a project in Africa.
In February, Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne insisted that the project, which he inherited from US energy company Anadarko, was still on track to start operating in 2024.
He said he had reached an agreement with Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi to establish a 25-kilometer (15-mile) safe zone around the site.
But last week, jihadists attacked, just 10 kilometers from the complex, reportedly beheading residents and looting buildings in the latest rampage.
Hundreds, including many foreign workers, have been evacuated by air and sea as thousands of locals walked to safety.
The UN said it has registered at least 9,100 people internally displaced by the latest violence.
The violence has uprooted nearly 700,000 people from their homes since October 2017.
Cabo Delgado jihadists have wreaked havoc across the province with the goal of establishing a caliphate.
The insurgents are affiliated with the Islamic State group, which claimed the Palma attack.
str-cld-mgu-sn / bp
