Mozambique 19 Feb: Bright spots in a sea of gloom
Good afternoon. It’s been a week of positive announcements for Mozambique’s faltering power supply – but positivity in Mozambique is currently fighting a losing battle against a tide of depressing developments.
Let’s take the good news first. Today, Zitamar revealed a 110 MW floating power plant has sailed into Nacala, mainly to supply Zambian demand but with a significant upside for security of electricity supply in northern Mozambique.
SEE: Turkish ‘powership’ docks in Nacala to generate 100 MW for Zambia
Separately, President Filipe Nyusi and energy minister Pedro Couto have been in Ressano Garcia today inaugurating a new 120 MW gas-fired power plant. Electricity utility EDM also signed an agreement this week for two Japanese companies to build a new 100 MW power plant just outside Maputo, financed by a Japanese development loan on very advantageous terms.
SEE: Japanese consortium to build Maputo 100MW gas-fired power plant
On to the bad – and where to start? The United Nations’ refugee agency, the UNHCR, has come out fighting after Mozambique foreign minister Oldemiro Baloi’s visit last weekend to the refugee camps in Malawi. He accused the UNHCR of trying to persuade the refugees to stay, while he tried to persuade them to return home. Unfortunately for him, the refugees say it is his government they are running from.
SEE: UNHCR warns Mozambique over pressure on refugees to return
Instead of conducting an investigation into the allegations the refugees have made, the government keeps insisting they must return to Mozambique – with deputy foreign minister (and daughter of Frelimo founder Eduardo Mondlane) Nyeleti Mondlane reaffirming that as the government’s priority yesterday.
In the absence of help from their own government, the refugees are relying on international aid agencies. The UNHCR has been joined by MSF whose local co-ordinator at the Kapise camp describes conditions as the most overcrowded she has ever seen. Six thousand refugees now are sharing 14 latrines, after refugee arrivals at the camp jumped 40% over the last week, according to the co-ordinator, Whitney Ward. MSF and UNHCR now want to open a new, larger camp further from the border, as hopes fade of a quick resolution to the crisis.
The Mozambique government’s pitiful response means it is struggling to secure the moral high ground in the ongoing conflict with Renamo. An increased intensity in attacks along the EN1 north-south highway have led police to resume armed escorts for vehicles that need to head north from the River Save, which marks the border between Inhambane and Sofala provinces.
SEE: Police escorts return to Mozambique highway following attacks
The convoys apparently do not stretch as far as Gorongosa, however, site of a deadly shoot-out on Wednesday, nor to Caia where other incidents have been reported. Some local journalists have adopted the hash-tag #MozConflict, which you can use to monitor the latest conflict reports on Twitter.
Mozambique’s spiralling problems are coming to international attention. The BBC’s World Service has produced an item on ‘Mozambique’s looming crisis’. South Africa’s Institute of Security Studies says ‘Mozambique’s success story under threat’. And don’t forget the natural disasters: the drought has caught the Guardian’s eye, which says: ‘As Mozambique's rivers dry up, the hopes of a harvest evaporate too’.
Coal miners continue to struggle. Vale this week saw its workers go on strike over an expected bonus which the company will not pay any of its workers worldwide, due to an unprofitable 2015. But for the Mozambican workforce this was a step too far, adding insult to the injury of a significant pay cut last year. Zitamar’s latest information is that some, but not all, of the strikers have gone back to work.
SEE: Vale Mozambique miners on strike as ‘unprofitable’ company cuts bonuses
Have a peaceful weekend.