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Between the 17th -20th October over 85 boats arrived carrying more than 2000 people. The estimate is that there are now over 250 000 people being displaced in the area.
Looking at Africa today it is chaos virtually everywhere you look and it all boils down to poor leadership and greed. Africa has so much to offer yet all the leaders are trying to fill their already overflowing pockets.
In 2010 gas and oil was located of the Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique. This attracted the big players in the industry.
The Mozambique LNG Project under TOTAL worth $20 Billion
The Rovuma LNG Project under ExxonMobil, ENI and CNPC(China National Petroleum Corporation) worth $30 Billion.
The Coral FLNG Project under ExxonMobil, ENI (Mobil,BP and Shell) worth $4.7 Billion.
The Cabo Delgado Province is currently under terrorist attack yet the Prime Minister of Mozambique doesn't want to ask for aid. Civilians have been slaughtered causing many to flee their homes and seek help and protection elsewhere. Over 2000 arrived in Pemba in the last few days.
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The Commander of Mozambique's Specialised Reactionary Force laying down the law as many refused to protect the people at Pemba. He said he would rather have 10 men than 1000 cowards.
One would have thought with all the money flowing into the region that at least the locals would be looked after. Many were relocated from their land allowing access for foreign oil companies to exploit the area. Sounds like the same old story where government officials have sold out their people enriching themselves.
The people in the region believe the government has sold them short and is perfect for an uprising in what we are seeing happen right now. Muslim extremist groups have been fighting in the area trying to get a stronghold to take over the region. A new tactic that has started to work is the extremists are now trying to win over local support. If this happens and the locals switch then the problem has just got a whole lot worse.
What I find alarming is they will succeed if this is not bought under control and quickly. Many interested parties notably China, India and France/Germany are looking on trying to work out the next move. The Mozambican Government had employed the Wagner Group which is a private Russian military company. They have reportedly left the area in March after some of their 200 strong force were killed in ambushes. This makes sense as the activity has increased in the area and they must have been replaced by a new security company.
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Attacks that have occurred just this month. One of the attacks went into neighboring Tanzania so it is no longer just a Mozambican issue. South Africa as a neighboring country should have offered it's hand already.
There are only a handful that have the capable resources required and one of them being the Dyck Advisory Group and the other Executive Outcomes. I would say that there is a very high probability they are both involved in Mozambique right now. Knowing the history of Executive Outcomes and what they are capable of depending on the contract they should succeed. They may not be fully involved just yet and possibly only some elements as I know in the past they have managed to negotiate lucrative contracts. In Sierra Leone they received a diamond mine in 1995 which still operates to this day.
A friend of mine happened to work there for over a year and obviously never read the Executive Outcomes book. He said the mine was very safe and they never had any problems whilst he was there. Not shocking as they helped stave off a coup and the ones running the mine were the mercenaries themselves.
Luckily right now for the oil companies involved all their work is off shore and will most likely have to remain off shore. Off shore doesn't mean safety though as we saw what happened with the Somalian pirates and how that escalated. If that has an inkling of happening though I can see the Chinese stepping in. I believe out all of the interested parties they will be the first to move and secure the region. For the time being it doesn't suit them to make a move as like Executive outcomes the situation needs to deteriorate to give them a stronger bargaining tool.
It is sad that the world works this way and the cost of human lives is put down to a negotiation. Mozambique has to deteriorate in order to be fixed giving up some of it's riches in the process.
This is so crazy. It seems like something out of a movie, so it is hard to believe that it is actually happening in real life. I hope you are able to stay safe and it doesn't work its way in to South Africa anytime soon. It still sucks for those whom it is impacting.