Hopes of become an international energy player have been delayed at least five years as Exxon Mobil put the hold on investing in the vast resource beneath Cabo Delgado.

Exxon Mobil made an intermediate decision last year to invest in the exploitation of liquid petroleum gas in Mozambique.

According to Mozambique analyst Jo Hanlon that was for the benefit of President Felipe Nysui’s election campaign.

Now the real ink on the dotted line has been delayed five years, meaning production cannot start until 2030.

The depression caused by the COVID 19 pandemic has stalled investment everywhere.

Gas prices, which follow oil prices, halved between 2018 and 2019 and then halved again this year as Saudi Arabia and Russia boosted production to push U.S. shale out of the market.

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The jury remains out on whether the African Union’s determination to silence the guns this year will be actualised.

Anglophone rebels of the Southern Cameroons Defence Force have agreed for humanitarian reasons to lay down their arms while the battle rages against COVID 19.

The larger Ambazonia Defence Force has yet to say it is calling off its three-year insurgency.

In Mozambique the Islamist separatists in the gas-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado have got even tougher.

In the past week they have raided two towns, sending residence fleeing in boats to the provincial capital Pemba.

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The target was a minibus carrying 20 passengers from Palma to the provincial capital Pemba.

Police who arrived at the scene soon after the attack said they were unable to save any of the victims.

Most of them died when the taxi, which came under fire from the terrorists crashed.

Eyewitnesses  say the taxi burst into flames in which several of the passengers were burned to death.

A child was decapitated, as was another passenger in front of his wife and children.

Cabo Delgado province, where the deadly attack took place is falling increasingly under the sway of extremists who’s trademark is cutting the heads off victims.

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It come from Afghanistan and was en route to Europe and South Africa.

This is the first raid on heroin traffic off the Mozambique coast in more than 20 years.

It was undertaken by the navy and the national criminal investigation service known SERNIC.

The traffickers saw the authorities approaching and set fire to the wooden dhow carrying the drug and threw themselves into the sea 50 kms off Cabo Delgado

12 of them were saved and arrested and three drowned.

About 40 tonnes of heroin reaches Mozambique from Aghanistan every year.

From there it is shipped to Europe or taken by road to Johannesburg. 

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Many of the houses in Pemba, up in the north of Mozambique are made of mud bricks which is crumbling in the deluge that has persisted since the cyclone made landfall last Thursday.

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The magazine New Scientist is calling cyclone Kenneth one of the strongest hurricanes  ever to have hit the African mainland.

Heavy rains persist in Nampula and Cabo Delgado making access to some of the the people in distress virtually impossible. 

More than 30 000 s houses have been damaged or destroyed. 200 classrooms and 15 health car centres have been obliterated.

21 000 people are sheltering in 30 accommodation centres

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The payment was ordered by the London High Court.

Gemfields is making the payment after mediation with no admission of liability.

It agrees that instances of violence have  occurred at its Montepuez Mine in Cabo Delgado province but declares the company is not liable for these.

The case, in the province where Islamist militants have killed hundreds in recent attacks, involves 18 killings by mine security and Mozambique police and beatings that in some case left victims unable to return to work.

An independence grievance panel has been set up, in terms of the ruling, to pay further claims.  

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Foreign Affairs spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya says South Africa’s High Commissioner in Maputo has been ordered to investigate the death.

The death of Andre Hankom is confirmed by his wife Francis and daughter Andrie.

The 61 year old had lived in Mozambique for 26 years.

He was a hunter and game fisherman.

Friends says his arrest as a suspected supporters of a terror group responsible for scores of gruesome killings in Cabo Delgado Province was a result of mistaken identity, or his being framed by business rivals or scapegoated.

His widow says authorities were trying to gain access to his seafront property which looks over the rich gas deposits in the province.

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The jihadis have killed  dozens of victims many of them beheaded or hacked to death with machetes.

The jihadis have been active in the Cabo Delgado province where the local populations complains it is not benefiting from the burgeoning local oil and gas operations.

The cruel attacks on villagers occur almost weekly.

Human Rights Watch says security forces trying to counter the militants have themselves perpetrated executions and arbitrary arrests of suspects.

The organization  bases its report on evidence gained since August.

It’s calling on Mozambique authorities to take immediate steps to stop human rights violations.

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The suspected Islamist attack in the northern province of Cabo Delgado has caused thousands to flee for safety in neighbouring  Tanzania.

The attack took place a few kilometers from the Tanzanian border where Mozambique does not have security patrols.

Victims were either hacked to death with machetes or died in the flames of their burning homes.

This is the third such attack in a month – leaving a total of 20 people dead.

Mozambique authorities are pressing ahead with oil and gas operations in Cabo Delgado.

Dissidents say the local population is not benefitting from the riches these ventures are bringing in.

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The group has links to Somalia’s Al Shabaab terror group.

The insurgents decapitated another victim on the day before the police operation in Cabo Delgado province which is the centre of Mozambique’s emerging natural gas industry.

Police say the jihadis were killed near the two small villages where they decapitated ten victims including children.

More details of the operation are expected to be revealed today.

Cabo Delgado has seen a number of deadly attacks by suspected radical Islamists since October.

More than 300 people suspected of having ties to the group have been arrested since then, with more than a third still held, according to the authorities.

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