Welcome to Zitamar’s daily Mozambique briefing for 31 July, 2018.
Agenda
- Tomorrow: Conference on the air transport needs of megaprojects, organized by the Ministry of Transport and Communication
The latest from Zitamar News:
Zitamar’s newsdesk is on holiday this week
...but the Mozambique Daily Briefing continues as usual.
Today’s top headlines:
- Nini Satar to return to Mozambique this week
- Rapid Intervention police kill one and injure two in Zambézia resettlement protests
- Mozambique to finally approve new oil and gas exploration contracts
- Nyusi: Government still searching Cabo Delgado attack masterminds
Nini Satar to return to Mozambique this week (VoA, O País)
Mozambique’s prosecutor-general announced yesterday that Nini Satar, the fugitive who evaded completing his sentence for ordering the murder of journalist Carlos Cardoso until being arrested in Thailand last week, will be extradited to Mozambique this week. When he arrives, he will be in court to answer both for his evasion of probation and for his involvement in kidnapping cases in Mozambique.
Last week, the South African press revealed that Satar is also under investigation there for involvement in the kidnappings of businessmen in the Cape Town area. South Africa may request his extradition.
Rapid Intervention police kill one and injure two in Zambézia resettlement protests (DW)
At least one person was killed and two injured by police from the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) in riot gear during protests last weekend in Inhassunge, Zambézia province over resettlement compensation packages offered by the Great Wall Mining Development Company, a Chinese company doing heavy sands exploration in the area. Protesters said that the UIR beat protesters and took away phones from everyone at the scene. Police confirm that they did so, but claim it was in response to acts of violence by the protesters.
Much of the UIR is deployed in Cabo Delgado, fighting the insurgency there, but parts of it are still engaged in beating up protesting civilians elsewhere in the country. Last year, Great Wall gave Frelimo 500 motorised tricycles worth $410,000, a gift which may now be paying dividends.
Mozambique to finally approve new oil and gas exploration contracts (Notícias)
The Mozambican government should today approve Exploration and Production Concession Contracts (EPCCs) for companies that won Mozambique’s fifth international oil exploration competition in October 2015. According to Tavares Martinho, research and production administrator at Mozambique’s national oil company ENH, the first concession contracts will be signed in August.
It’s been a long and tortuous process to get agreement on these EPCCs, largely because of oil companies’ objections to Mozambique’s foreign exchange regulations, and the requirement to list on the local stock exchange - both of which have now been relaxed.
Nyusi: Government still searching Cabo Delgado attack masterminds (Rádio Moçambique, Lusa)
Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi said yesterday at a rally in Tete that authorities still do not know the motives of insurgents carrying out attacks in Cabo Delgado province. The government is still looking for the perpetrators, he continued, and is relying on civilian cooperation to prevent the attacks from spreading to other parts of the country. One thing the government does know, Nyusi said, is that insurgents recruit new members using false promises of employment and scholarships.
Nyusi’s speech is in some ways a frank admission of how little the government knows about the problem it faces despite the resources it has committed in Cabo Delgado. Even if the government’s intelligence capacity improves dramatically, however, Nyusi is still right to say that the government will need substantial civilian cooperation to gain the upper hand.
