Mozambique’s northern parallel corridor linking up with the Port of Nacala, an important access point close to the liquid natural gas (LNG) exploration territory in the country’s north-western extremity, is nowhere near meeting acceptable security standards.That’s the view of independent road freight efficiencies consultant, Mike Fitzmaurice.
Looking at various crucial corridors across sub-Saharan Africa, Fitzmaurice, who also heads up the Federation of Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), said the northern line from Nacala to Nampula, Cuamba and Chiponde where it passes through southern Malawi before re-entering Mozambique headed for the city of Tete, was just one of Africa’s problematic corridors.“They have been developing that road for years but the criminal activity on it means that it’s simply not safe.”
Instead transporters often prefer to use a road further south, “that’s not very economical and is a very roundabout way for freight in that part of Mozambique and its northern neighbours.”Even the corridor connecting the Port of Beira with Harare further south fell victim to violent criminality over December when Transist, the regional transit assistance bureau launched by Fesarta last year, reported several incidents of truck torching in the vicinity of Inchope, roughly one third of the way from the port to the Zimbabwean capital.Video footage posted on Transist’s Whatsapp feed showed two trucks less than a kilometre apart on fire next to a road south of Inchope.“There has been a lot of crime on Mozambican roads in recent times,” Fitzmaurice says.“They are linked to rebel forces who were formerly associated with Renamo, the military group that resisted Frelimo’s eventual civil war victory in Mozambique.“They believe they still have something to fight for and have been very active on the Nacala corridor. Now they seem to be moving into other areas too. Whatever they believe they are fighting for, their actions amount to nothing more than pure criminality.”
For Mozambique it's bad news, especially since the country is busy implementing the biggest infrastructural project to tap into its LNG resources in the Rovuma basin on its border with Tanzania.Duncan Bonnett, director at trade consultancy Africa House, last year told a business gathering at the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry that with an initial expected 10-year yield of $128 billion, Mozambique’s LNG project was the biggest of its kind ever seen on earth.As far as infrastructural involvement and related spend is concerned, it is only outclassed by the International Space Station.
“Unfortunately Cabo del Gado, the province that holds the LNG, has always been regarded as a sunny place for shady people,” Bonnett said.One person who fell foul of criminal developments in that province, with fatal consequences, was André Hanekom, an independent logistics operator who early last year died under extremely suspicious circumstances – with South African and Mozambican authorities allegedly in cahoots to cover it up.More recently, Bonnett said that f lare-ups of violence in this area were, in many circles, attributed to renegades reacting in a manner befitting hoodlums involved with smuggling activities who were increasingly feeling the discomfort of big business squeezing out criminal trade.It has since also come to light that Russia, eager to position itself in ways reminiscent of military-industrial protectionism, is arming and funding a mercenary outfit called the Wagner Group.Apart from its activities elsewhere in Africa, Russia has a reported 2700 troops staged off Mozambique’s northern coastline.