Voters cast in Mozambique Their votes next week in presidential and legislative elections are almost certain to extend Frelimo’s half-century-long rule as it fights a long-running ISIS-led insurgency in one of Africa’s largest gas fields.
Ruling party candidate Daniel Chapo, a former radio broadcaster and law lecturer, is widely expected to replace Felipe Nyusi as president of the southeast African nation.
Here are some of the key issues facing one of the world’s poorest countries and its population of more than 34 million as it heads to the polls.
Confronting the rebellion
Aid agencies say Islamic State-linked militants launched an insurgency in the gas-rich northern Cabo Delgado province in 2017, killing thousands of civilians, destroying livelihoods and internally displacing hundreds of thousands. The rebellion disrupted billions of dollars worth of energy projects.
Gas projects stopped
Before the wave of rebel attacks, work had begun on gas projects worth more than $50 billion earmarked for development aimed at turning the country into a major LNG producer, but French energy giant Total Energy halted work on its $20 billion LNG project. A state of force majeure was declared in 2021 after rebels attacked the northern town of Palma, a logistics hub close to the site.
Total Energy CEO Patrick Pouyanne said in July that the company hopes to chart a course to restart the LNG plant after the presidential election.
Another liquefied natural gas project led by ExxonMobil and its partner Eni has also been postponed. Exxon expects to make a final investment decision by the end of 2025.
Debt scandal
On the other hand, Mozambique is still suffering from the “tuna bonds” scandal worth more than $1.5 billion, in which money was loaned to state-run companies in order to provide fishing fleets, but part of this financing disappeared from Credit Suisse.
Last year, the bank, now owned by UBS, reached an out-of-court settlement with Mozambique over the decade-old scandal, which prompted the International Monetary Fund and other donors to temporarily cut support to the country, leading to the launch of a new currency.
Mozambique asserted that it was the victim of a conspiracy between shipbuilders, corrupt officials and banks. President Nyusi, who was defense minister at the time, denied any wrongdoing.
The scandal has led to criminal investigations from Maputo to New York, while senior politicians in the ruling Frelimo party have been indicted for their involvement, dealing a blow to the party’s image.
Climate shocks
On the other hand, Mozambique is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, as it is vulnerable to extreme climate changes such as drought, cyclones and floods.
Mozambique was among the countries in southern Africa that were struck by drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon, which destroyed crops, affecting about 1.8 million people.
The United Nations in Mozambique said last August that residents were affected by drought in the central and southern parts of the country.
Destructive cyclones also regularly hit Mozambique. The country, along with neighboring Malawi and Madagascar, bore the brunt of Cyclone Freddy last year, when one of the most devastating storms to hit the continent in two decades tore through the region, killing more than 1,000 people.
Peace agreement
Politically, the Frelimo party has been in power since Mozambique’s independence in 1975. Shortly after independence, a 16-year civil war between Frelimo and the former guerrilla movement Renamo – now the country’s main opposition – left about a million people dead before the worst of the war ended in 1992. Conflicts and bloodshed. However, violence periodically erupts as elections get closer.
In an attempt to achieve a “final peace”, the two parties signed the Maputo Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement shortly before elections in 2019 to end years of conflict.
More than 5,000 former combatants have given up their weapons and have since been reintegrated into society.
