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French oil company Total said on Friday that it had cut operations and the number of workers involved in the natural gas project in Mozambique due to terrorist attacks near the facility, the latter just five kilometers away.
“Total has temporarily reduced its workforce at the site in response to the current environment,” the oil company said in response to financial reporting agency Bloomberg, although it did not disclose the number of workers sent home or for how long. .
“The situation is constantly being evaluated,” said only the oil company leading the natural gas exploration project in northern Mozambique, a $ 20 billion venture that is the largest private investment in sub-Saharan Africa.
Violence in northern Mozambique has intensified in recent weeks, with the latest attack occurring last week just five kilometers from the site where works are being carried out for the installation of a liquefied natural gas plant, in a draft. led by Total, which insurgents have said may be the next target.
In addition to the problem of violence, the oil company also pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the decision to reduce the workforce there.
Mozambique has attempted to control the armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado province, which began in October 2017 and has already killed more than 2,500 people, motivating more than half a million Mozambicans to flee their homes fleeing the violence.
The Total project, in addition to the Italian Eni and the North American Exxon Mobil, has the potential to transform the country’s economy when the huge quantities of natural gas reserves located in the north of the country begin to be exported, that is, from the coast, which it will place the country at the top of the list of the world’s largest exporters.
The second attack near the gas megaprojects in December occurred last Tuesday, after a first on December 7 in the Mute village, located less than 25 kilometers from the area where the industrial zone for natural gas processing is being built. . from Area 1 of the Rovuma basin.
The new attacks last Tuesday took place the day after the Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi, asked the Defense and Security Forces for “maximum disposition” in the face of the “silence of the enemy”, after operations with “good results” on the part of government forces in Macomia, another Cabo Delgado district that has been the frequent target of rebel incursions.
Of the operations in Macomia, according to official data, at least 37 insurgents were shot and 27 weapons were seized, in operations carried out by the 7th Battalion of Defense and Security Forces deployed in the region.
The armed violence in Cabo Delgado began three years ago and has caused a humanitarian crisis that has already caused more than two thousand deaths and 560 thousand displaced, without housing or food, which have been concentrated mainly in the provincial capital, Pemba.
Some of the raids have been claimed by the Islamic State ‘jihadist’ group since 2019. In January, the Southern African Development Community will meet to discuss the security situation in the region.
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