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Return to Contents Page

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BUSINESS INDEX .......................................................................................................... 7

ECONOMY & BUSINESS ............................................................................................... 9

GRAPH 1: MOZAMBIQUE CURRENCY EVALUATION ........................................... 9

Macro-Economy: ...................................................................................................... 10

Who should pay the hidden debts? ............................................................................ 10

Mozambique's economy grew 3.7% in the second quarter ........................................ 10

Value of metical falls against major currencies .......................................................... 11

Company revenue fell sharply in first half of the year ................................................ 11

Average commodity prices: 10 to 17 August .............................................................. 12

“The solution in times of crisis is to set priorities” – José Chichava ........................... 12

President Nyusi to visit US in September: open call for business people .................. 16

Government prepares draft local content law ............................................................. 17

Companies in India and China lead investment in Tete ............................................. 17

Angola counts on Mozambican experience to join SADC Free Trade Zone .............. 18

Human resources focus in next cycle of China/Africa economic co-operation ........... 18

Global Innovation Index 2016 .................................................................................... 20

Financial Services:................................................................................................... 20

Civil Identification Directorate bans ID photocopies in banks, other sectors .............. 20

Norway-backed fund on hiring spree in Africa finance venture .................................. 21

Insurance premiums in Mozambique reach US$116-million in 2015 ......................... 22

Oil and Gas: .............................................................................................................. 23

Legal expert: Does Africa’s growing LNG supply come with contractual complications?

................................................................................................................................... 23

Mozambique offshore training centre receives accreditation ..................................... 25

Mining: ...................................................................................................................... 25

Click on a title to follow the link to the related article. To return to the Contents Page, click on the link

at the top-right hand corner of the page.

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Mustang resources discovers new ruby deposit ........................................................ 25

Xtract updates on Manica Project and Chepica Mine ................................................ 26

Thousands of jobs lost in Mozambican mining industry ............................................. 26

Energy: ...................................................................................................................... 27

Mozambican government approves bill on atomic energy ......................................... 27

Transport & Construction: ...................................................................................... 27

Company developing Mozambique’s northern corridor to receive 100 railcars .......... 27

Tender Launched for Cabotage Partner ..................................................................... 28

Malawi and Mozambique meet over Nsanje Inland Port – Mota-Engil is the contractor

................................................................................................................................... 28

Share taxi services in parts of Maputo on strike ......................................................... 29

Sub-Saharan Africa makes advances in real estate transparency ............................. 30

Agriculture & Fishing: ............................................................................................. 31

Minister of Agriculture wants greater entrepreneur commitment to Mozambique’s

development .............................................................................................................. 31

Grain prices fluctuate in the country’s markets .......................................................... 31

Mandlakazi to harvest 35,000-tons of corn ................................................................ 32

Cashew factory searching for more workers .............................................................. 32

Agricultural business centres open in Mozambique ................................................... 33

Fishing Ministry invests MT700-million in small scale fishing activities ...................... 33

Telecommunications: .............................................................................................. 34

Introducing SIGMER, the radio spectrum system that will help detect illegal

communications in Mozambique ................................................................................ 34

Tourism: .................................................................................................................... 34

“Investment in tourism promotes peace and development” – President Nyusi ........... 34

Other: ........................................................................................................................ 35

Thirty-three countries confirm presence at FACIM ..................................................... 35

Number of pensioners suspended for failing proof of life cut by half .......................... 36

General Labour Inspectorate suspends 59 illegal workers ......................................... 36

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Expired food and medicine destroyed in Tete ............................................................ 36

POLITICS ...................................................................................................................... 37

International mediators prepare to meet with Afonso Dhlakama in Gorongosa ......... 37

Mediators propose route out of deadlock ................................................................... 38

Government and Renamo reach consensus on drafting package of laws ................. 39

No Renamo governors without cessation of hostilities ............................................... 40

Mozambique: peace deal? – Deutsche Welle ............................................................ 43

Thursday’s Joint Commission meeting ends in silence .............................................. 45

Frelimo appeals to the Joint Commission to work within terms of reference .............. 45

US says politico-military tension could harm co-operation with Mozambique ............ 46

“Conditions exist for the disbandment of Renamo” - Roque Gonçalves ..................... 46

New political party launched in Nampula Province .................................................... 46

President Nyusi pleased with advancements in Manica............................................. 47

Prime Minister visits Niassa Province ........................................................................ 48

OJM organises peace march in Matola ...................................................................... 48

SECURITY .................................................................................................................... 49

President condemns escalation in Renamo attacks ................................................... 49

Defence Ministry: FADM will not tolerate Renamo assaults on the population .......... 50

Police prevent Renamo assault on Nhamatanda ....................................................... 52

Six dead in Cheringoma – government blames Renamo, but survivors blame PRM . 52

Police insist Renamo committed murders on road to Caia......................................... 53

Renamo uses FADM uniforms to camouflage barbarities – Folha de Maputo ........... 54

One dead and one wounded in another attack in central Mozambique ..................... 55

Renamo’s attack on journalists is a war crime – union............................................... 56

Two FIR units deployed to Morrumbala ..................................................................... 57

Attacks in Mozambique lead to police personnel changes in Morrumbala and Mopeia

................................................................................................................................... 57

Port of Beira making a loss due to Renamo attacks – Sofala government................. 58

Mozambique war victims flock into Zimbabwe ........................................................... 59

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Hostilities in Mozambique creating tension on Zimbabwe’s border ............................ 59

CRIME ........................................................................................................................... 61

MAP 1: KIDNAPPING INCIDENTS IN CENTRAL MAPUTO 2014 – 2016 ............. 61

GRAPH 2: PUBLIC-MEDIA REPORTED KIDNAPPINGS PER YEAR ................... 61

GRAPH 3: TIME OF KIDNAPPINGS 2014 - 2016 .................................................. 62

GRAPH 4: KIDNAPPINGS PER GENDER / AGE-GROUP 2014 – 2016 ............... 62

Government pledges to curb misappropriation of funds ............................................. 63

Vanduzi administrator not dismissed over corruption – Manica Governor ................. 63

African bishops fight human and organ trafficking ..................................................... 64

Intoxicated FIR agents shoot two young men in Beira ............................................... 65

Eighteen robbers arrested in Manica ......................................................................... 65

Citizen arrested in Nampula found to be in possession of precious stones ............... 65

Woman raped and murdered in Matola ...................................................................... 65

HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND NGO’S ......................................... 66

Japan donates US$5-million to WFP for drought relief – US$2.7-million allocated to

Mozambique .............................................................................................................. 66

Mozambique prepares to harvest rainwater after a severe drought ........................... 67

Warning of 579,000 severely malnourished children the latest wake-up call on

southern Africa ........................................................................................................... 68

Mission visits Dam Rehabilitation Project expected to provide water to 17,000 people

in Mozambique ........................................................................................................... 69

More than 2,000 people displaced by drought and military crisis ............................... 69

Human Rights League launches report on Mozambican refugees in Malawi – 4,000

remain in the camps ................................................................................................... 70

UN expert to assess human rights of people with albinism in Mozambique ............... 71

Economic consequences of child marriage in Mozambique, and what it will take to

end the tradition ......................................................................................................... 72

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WILDLIFE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION .................................................... 74

Growing number of lions slaughtered for traditional rituals in Mozambique ............... 74

Chinese man arrested with ZAR1.5-million in rhino horns ......................................... 74

Sustainable utilisation of wildlife not so sustainable ................................................... 75

African countries square up for battle over future of ivory trade ban .......................... 77

World Elephant Day sees worldwide call to burn ivory stockpiles .............................. 79

WWF ignores history at elephants’ peril ..................................................................... 81

If Japan is slow to ban ivory trade, online shops are even slower .............................. 83

France introduces total ban on ivory sales ................................................................. 86

Meeting on the illegal trade of animal species to focus on rhinos .............................. 86

EU to fund plan to boost low emission in Africa ......................................................... 87

HEALTH ........................................................................................................................ 89

More than 3% of the Mozambican population suffers from mental disorders ............. 89

Ipswich Hospital staff teach colleagues in Mozambique as part of knowledge-sharing

project ........................................................................................................................ 89

BUSINESS INDEX

AfDB 22, 69

Amazon 85

Auroch Minerals 26

Banco de Moçambique 12

Banco Montepio 22

CDN 27, 28

CFM 28, 59

China Development Bank 19

CITES 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86

DeNA Co. 85

Ematum 10

EMTPM 36

Equity Group Holdings 21

Export Trading Group 33

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Export-Import Bank of China 19

FMO 21, 22

Gemfields 26

Google 85

IMF 15, 16, 21, 72

ISSM 22

JLL 30

LAM 36

LaSalle Investment Management 30

MAM 10

Mineral Technologies International Ltd. 26

Mota-Engil 28, 29

Mustang Resources 25, 26

Nexus Capital Ltd. 26

Norfund 21, 22

Proindicus 10

Rabobank Groep 21

Rakuten 84, 85

Sociedade de Desenvolvimento do Corredor 28

SoftBank 85

Syrah Resources 26

Transmarítima 28

Triton Minerals 26

Vale 26, 27, 59

Vanduzi 47, 48, 50, 55, 63, 64

Westfalia Fruit 47

World Bank 73

Xtract Resources 26

Yahoo 84, 85

Yahoo Auction 84

Yahoo Japan 84, 85

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ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Mozambique Exchange Rate and Fuel Prices: 19 August 2016

GRAPH 1: MOZAMBIQUE CURRENCY EVALUATION

Mozambique Fuel Prices

Fuel Type Price Per Litre

Petrol 47,52MT

Diesel 36,81MT

Prices only valid for Maputo, Beira and Nacala

Mozambique Metical (MZN) Exchange Rate

Currency Buy Sell

Euro (EUR) 78,22 79,80

U.S. Dollar (USD) 69,00 70,40

S.A. Rand (ZAR) 5,15 5,25

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Macro-Economy:

Who should pay the hidden debts?

The Mozambican State has no money, yet it must honour its commitments in order to avoid continuing penalisation by rating agencies, legal expert Ignésio Francisco from Mozambique’s Centre for Public Integrity (Centro de Integridade Pública, CIP) says.

The CIP maintains that, according to the national administrative system, the so-called sovereign debt is invalid and may be declared void, but legal experts say that if this happens, it will further affect the country’s credibility in international markets. Some sectors of Mozambican society and beyond are defending the theory that the whole process behind the so-called hidden debts is void.

The CIP’s most recent analysis of the subject argues that the contracting of debts for Ematum, Proindicus and Mozambique Assets Management (MAM) violated the constitutional principle that it is within parliament’s purview to authorise the government to borrow or lend, so these debts must be considered void.

Legal experts say that if it is legally established that the debts are indeed void, the main implication would be releasing the Mozambican government from its responsibility to pay these obligations and the transfer of liability to the entities that contracted them.

“The most immediate consequence I foresee is these debts being charged to the people who were behind them and the State being relieved of these obligations”, lawyer José Machicane says.

But Francisco argues that the Mozambican State, although it has no money, must honour its commitments if it wishes to avoid being further penalised by the rating agencies. Recently, Portuguese sociologist Boaventura Sousa Santos also argued that it was important to identify the nature of the debts clearly.

The objective would be to ascertain the Mozambican State’s degree of responsibility for these debts, bearing in mind that the State acted only as guarantor and not as principal debtor, therefore it would only assume the debt in case of default by the principal debtors, which are in this case public companies.

Source: VOA Português

Mozambique's economy grew 3.7% in the second quarter

According to the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estatística, INE), the Mozambican economy grew by 3.7% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2016, representing an average growth in the first half of 4.4%. According to INE, this demonstrates a “stagnation of economic activity” in the second quarter compared to the previous one.

The INE data indicates that the behaviour of the economy in the second quarter was predominantly influenced by the secondary sector, with 9.4% growth. This was largely influenced by the construction sector with an increase of 13.6%. This was followed by the tertiary sector, with overall growth of 4.8%, driven by transport, housing, information and communications.

In terms of gross domestic product (GDP), agriculture, livestock, hunting, forestry and fishing had the most weight, accounting

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for 26.6%. The overall increase in GDP stood at 4.4%, according to the INE. This is higher than the government’s indication of 4%. (See Economic growth slows in the first half of 2016 - page 13, Rhula Weekly No. 143).

Source: Lusa

Value of metical falls against major currencies

The metical depreciated by 9.3% in one month, and now stands at MT72.85 against the US dollar, whilst on 15 July it was MT62.85.

O País recalled that on 12 July 2013, one US dollar cost just MT29.9 and the current exchange rate, on 17 August, represents a real increase of MT42.95 or a decline of 58.5%.

The Banco de Moçambique has, since the end of 2015, increased benchmark interest rates on marginal lending, which currently stand at 17.25%, in order to control exchange rates and prevent the general rise in prices.

These measures do not appear to be working, with the central bank forecasting that the first signs of improvement will appear at the end of March 2017.

The exchange rate table of the Banco de Moçambique indicated that on 1 August one US dollar cost MT69.18, which on 10 August increased to MT70.07 and on 15 August rose again to MT72.85.

O País also said the exchange rate of the metical against the rand in South Africa “is not good”, as one rand was worth MT4.95 on 1 August and 17 days later the exchange rate rose to MT5.5.

Source: MacauHub/O País

Company revenue fell sharply in first half of the year

Economic instability exacerbated the fall in the turnover of Mozambican companies in the first half of the year, according to data from the INE. A fall in demand and rising production costs were the main cause.

Business activity has been showing signs of instability since the end of last year, and the most recent INE publication shows that it has worsened in the first half of 2016.

Based on the newsletter that publishes the indicators on confidence and economic climate and expresses the opinion of companies surveyed on their progress and prospects, the INE concludes that business confidence fell for the third consecutive quarter, reflecting the unfavourable economic environment.

The worsening economic climate comprises a fall in demand and employment indicators that reflect the reduction in turnover in a scenario where production costs are increasing because of the depreciation of the metical against the US dollar and the rise in prices in general.

The INE report shows that almost all sectors reflected the crisis in the first six months of the year, with trade, motor vehicle maintenance, manufacturing and mining, electricity and water, construction, hotels and restaurants suffering most.

According to the INE survey, 39% of Mozambican companies faced difficulties between April and June, a 4% increase over the previous quarter.

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The Confidence and Economic Environment Indicators (Indicadores de Confiança e de Clima Económico) newsletter is a monthly publication on the economic situation in Mozambique, and expresses the business perspective on employment, demand, orders, prices, production, sales and limitations on activity.

Source: O País

Average commodity prices: 10 to 17 August

During the period 10 to 17 August, average prices for basic food products once again shifted in some shops and markets in the cities of Maputo, Beira and Nampula.

In Maputo city the price of imported rice increased by 10%, imported cooking oil by 9%, imported reno potatoes by 5%, locally produced white sugar and imported Mackerel by 4% each, locally produced brown sugar by 3% and imported onions by 2%.

In Beira the price of locally produced eggs increased by 19%, imported cooking oil by 10% and locally produced dried fish by 7%. The price of locally produced tomatoes decreased by 20%, while the price of imported onions decreased by 5%.

In Nampula city the price of imported onions increased by 25%, while the price of imported reno potatoes increased by 6%. The price of locally produced tomatoes decreased by 38%, locally produced onion by 14% and locally produced butter beans and eggs decreased by 5% each.

Source: Jornal Notícias

“The solution in times of crisis is to set priorities” – José Chichava

Economist and former minister of State Administration, Professor José Chichava, argues that the monetarist measures taken by the Banco de Moçambique alone will be unable to solve the country’s crisis, because the crisis is not a matter of Mozambique alone. He also maintains that the government should instead take measures to increase domestic agricultural production, through a selective effort which does not put at risk the basic levels of well-being of the population.

O País: Mozambique is experiencing difficult times, both economically and politically. In the economic context, there are several voices that argue that the way out resides in the national production. What can we do to leverage or rebuild the country through national production?

José Chichava (JC): In crisis situations we should always look within. The economy we inherited is dependent on imports – the country imports everything, including consumer goods. It is also dependent on exports because it is not we who set the price. But we are dependent, and the main products we export – coal, aluminium and gas – decreased in value by nearly 50%. So we should be converging on the priorities of the moment. There are many things we can do, but they cannot all be done at the same time. The first thing is to end the war – it is necessary for Renamo to stop the attacks – because no economic policy can be successful when there is political tension.

O País: You mentioned the civil war period and the policies that were implemented but which failed because of

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the context. During peacetime, PARPA 1, PARPA 2 and PART were implemented but did not achieve their expected objectives – more than half the Mozambican population still lives in absolute poverty. How do you look at the challenges of putting these ideas into practice and getting results in the light of past experiences?

JC: First we must look at the economic policies: how realistic are they? In times of crisis like this we must have the courage to be selective, to define in which areas to invest, stop one sector to support another. Support agriculture, the private sector, even if individually. For example, we have farmers in Chokwe, Angonia and Niassa who produce large quantities, but have trouble placing the products in the market, do not have quality seeds, good quality irrigation … The government has identified four priority areas and has defined agriculture, which is very good, but if we look at the investment component, it is less than 10% of what was set at the level of Africa overall. If we look at the products from Angonia, Niassa and Chokwe, among them there are some that can replace imports such as onions, potatoes, tomatoes and vegetables. But these producers need to be nurtured. It is much more cost-effective to support a national producer placing his goods in the domestic market and reduce imports. This means we must look within the country. We must take this crisis as an opportunity to produce.

O País: How can we best take advantage of this phase given that the central bank has implemented policies that, in a way, contradict this perspective, by making money more expensive and, in some ways, inhibit the private sector acting in the market flexibly? In this context, how is

this nurturing of the private sector being carried out?

JC: The commercial banks will not nurture the private sector. The government’s policies are the ones that should do this. The central bank is doing its job, which is to try to control the sharp rise in inflation. But for the central bank’s policies to succeed, we need to be in a normal situation, and we are not. If the political and military instability continues, what the central bank is doing will not succeed. Even if the dollar is set at MT500, MT200 or MT100, we would still have problems, and still not stimulate domestic production. It’s a little controversial to tell people that they need to look to internal provision, but as the economy has always been dependent on exports, the raw material comes from outside. Even a simple industry imports raw material, and with the rise in interest rates, importing raw material becomes prohibitive – so it is not worth counting on it.

Therefore, the government needs to give direct assistance to some producers, because, at the stage we are in, this measure can minimise this. The monetary authorities are doing their part, but if the monetary policy is not combined with fiscal policies, they will not succeed. The experience of Third World countries shows that these policies, when combined in the medium-term, compound crisis situations. The implementation of monetary policy alone will come to nothing, because the problems are not only in the money market, they are also in the local market – we are talking about producers, demand and supply. Today, the solution is the combination of what is a priority in a crisis. All together, we must decide what is the priority.

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But the government should take into account the social cost – the measures taken cannot put the vulnerable population in a critical situation. [Ensure] that those products that have an impact on the lives of these people do not get expensive, do not match the pace of inflation. To avoid a social upheaval, we must look at the general population and not those in a more favourable situation. The State should serve as a cushion for these people to turn to, people who hope for a government that looks after them.

O País: The slowing of the national economy is a fact – the government announced that our economy grew 4% in the first half of this year compared to 6% last year. Growth forecasts globally this year were already negative, pointing to a slowing economy. What short-term measures can be taken to relieve this pressure?

JC: It is necessary to mobilise the private sector to produce, and give selective assistance to sectors that produce. And at this stage, it is agriculture. The follow-up should go along a value chain, from production to processing or the delivery of the product to the consumer.

I will give the examples of Angoche, Milange and Niassa Province itself, where we have farmers who, at the stage we are in, are taking the little product they could use for food and selling it in Malawi. They will sell there because the purchase price is good. With good monitoring, we can prevent this little corn that we have – which can be consumed internally – from being redirected to another country; we do not have a production surplus, so this corn is needed. We need to encourage farmers to leave the corn here. And give production support, deliver seeds and fertiliser. I know the country doesn’t live

on agriculture alone but I am looking at the potential we have. Even if it is to plant in urban areas like Zimpeto. In the short-term, I say that we need to solve the food problem.

O País: And in the medium-to-long-term, what steps do we need to take to exit from the crisis?

JC: I repeat: there is no immediate measure that can work while the political tension continues. It must be ended. The Council of Ministers (Cabinet) may decide to take action, but if at the end of next week, Renamo still attacks and destroys, the State must stop and divert resources to resolving the immediate situation. It is difficult to plan in a time of war. We must change the economic environment – we need to make it more conducive to investment, so that any national investor feels the need to invest here. Second measure: we invest in public private partnerships (PPP). They have been beneficial in other countries because they close the gap due to lack of state funds. In well-organised PPPs, the State enters merely as a partner and the private comes with the features. In many areas they [PPPs] can work. For example, the government talks a lot about cabotage: it is an opportunity for private investment.

O País: During the CASP conference [Annual Conference of the Private Sector], the private sector asked the government to suspend the IRPS and VAT on agriculture for a period of 10 years. To what extent could this stimulate this sector?

JC: The country still lacks the ability to see this problem in general. I’d rather have the government being invited to act selectively, looking at sectors. Let us look, for example, at corn, soy, or cereal yield

15


crops; I select and give support to those sectors which would generate exports and the State would have to cover the expenditure made. The proposal was made, it is now up to the government to study and respond. What has been requested can be granted, but for selected sectors.

O País: The government took the initiative to eliminate the customs duty on products such as soap and cooking oil. How do you see the effectiveness of this measure?

JC: When the government takes these measures it is to boost domestic production. This measure was taken earlier with the sugar industry as a way of reviving it. The government has taken a measure which we call “protection to the domestic industry”. This type of measure cannot be taken in isolation. The government should meet with the CTA for it to indicate potential producers in the three regions of the country, and give direct support to relaunching national production.

O País: How can we nurture the private sector if the government does not express its willingness to meet the CTA? During CASP the President only attended the event’s opening ceremony. Can we make any inference from the head of state’s attendance and the importance he gives to the event and the private sector?

JC: The head of state’s attendance at the opening ceremony shows the political will that the government has to support the sector. The President was at the opening and the first discussion session. But it was decided that the interlocutor between the government and the CTA is the Prime Minister, and he followed the debates. We are in the middle of a conflict and having the head of state in this event shows a lot

of concern; we have to be content. I think the private sector has been a bit hard in its criticism. The government has reported on how it acted, and there are cases where the actions did not happen by failure of the executive, as is the case of laws – even today, they are languishing in parliament. [The government] created proposals, but it is the legislature who has to approve. The CTA must learn to lobby the various committees of parliament to create a convergence and stimulate the economy. The private sector and society must be happy with the head of state’s attendance at the event.

O País: One of the factors that pushed the country to the crisis is the current level of external debt. Was this scenario predictable, looking at the evolution of the debt?

JC: No, it was not predictable. But I think that, on this subject, we have more than enough information coming from the government itself and also from parliament. Remember that parliament formed a Commission of Inquiry to investigate what really happened. We have obligations as a country and as a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which functions as a club with rules. The level we had reached, the top one of the IMF – in which the IMF did not need to do policing because it relied on the country – trusted the information that the country produces. But, unfortunately, from 2013 to now, we incurred a lot of debts and the omission thereof caused this environment we are in, which has worsened the economic environment we were already in, exacerbated by droughts and international difficulties. It is not only the debt burden, but the loss of trust with someone who worked with you.

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O País: How is that confidence going to be restored, given that the IMF and other lenders require a forensic audit and our government says it trusts domestic institutions? Is this tug-of-war not harmful to the recovery of trust?

JC: I think not. The government has shown that it wants to redeem that confidence. The fact that it sent the Prime Minister to Washington is a very clear indication for restoring confidence. But it is true that it will not be just the talking, but above all the development of the process of clarifying these debts itself.

O País: Do we have the capacity to rise again and exit this short-term crisis without support from creditors?

JC: I would not say without support, because even international partners have realised that Mozambique needs this support. What will happen is an improvement in conditions until they feel comfortable with who they are supporting. We must understand this as a suspension of support.

O País: What is important to satisfy the requirements imposed by international creditors?

JC: It is important to show that, heads held high, we want to solve the country’s problems, first showing a firm stance against waste, corruption, bureaucracy, penalising offenders and working for the business environment to become increasingly promising – not only for international partners but also for the private investor. I feel that we can do this, but we all have to support the government and accept that the country can only prosper with hard work.

O País: What can we expect from this new stage of political dialogue?

JC: I hope that the mediators help us achieve peace, because without it nothing can succeed. It is peace that will bring success to all Mozambicans. A lasting peace – any agreement between Renamo and the government should aim to demilitarise Renamo, because it cannot have guns.

Source: O País

President Nyusi to visit US in September: open call for business people

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (Confederação das Associações Económicas de Moçambique, CTA) has announced that President Filipe Nyusi will conduct a working visit to the United States from 14 to 17 September 2016, prior to his participation in the United Nations General Assembly.

The working visit is being carried out within the context of strengthening the ties of friendship, solidarity and co-operation between the Republic of Mozambique and the United States of America.

In a statement, the CTA called for Mozambican entrepreneurs to join its delegation which, along with President Nyusi, will participate in two business forums.

The first meeting will be held in Washington on 15 September, organised by the Mozambican embassy and the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA). It will focus on agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and tourism.

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The second forum will be held the next day in Houston, organised by the embassy and the Greater Houston Partnership. The city is the capital of the US hydrocarbon industry, and the business meeting will look at Mozambique’s future growth in this sector and the future business opportunities.

During his time in the United States, President Nyusi will also attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, which begins on 13 September with the General Debate opening on 20 September.

The CTA invites all those interested in joining the business delegation that will accompany the President to send their application to the contacts below before 26 August 2016.

Lucas Judas: [email protected]

Jassira Couto: [email protected]

Tel.: +258 21 32 10 01; +258 82 311 1820; +258 82 319-1300

Source: CTA/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

Government prepares draft local content law

The government is preparing a draft local content law with a view to regulate business links between major projects and small and medium-sized Mozambican companies.

Meetings organised by the Ministry of Economy and Finance together with the CTA are being held throughout the country to discuss the proposed legislation.

The first meeting was recently held in the city of Pemba (Cabo Delgado Province) and the second in Beira (Sofala Province). Another was held this week in the city of Maputo. The aim of these meetings is to gather private sector contributions before drawing up the final document for submission to the National Assembly for consideration and vote.

A CTA source told reporters that the increase in natural resource exploitation and the higher number of Mozambican companies supplying services to large projects “brought major challenges to the country, specifically the need to capitalise on that increased investment”.

To do so, “it is important to adopt mechanisms that oblige large projects to incorporate national content in their activity, thereby guaranteeing the participation of Mozambican companies”, said the source.

Source: MacauHub/Jornal Notícias

Companies in India and China lead investment in Tete

India and China head the list of countries with the largest number of foreign investments approved by the Single Service Desk (BAU) in the province of Tete, in the first half of the year.

The Executive Director of the Single Service Desk in the province, Domingos Macajo said that in the first six months of the year 82 licenses had been awarded, of which 19 were granted to Indian investors and 18 to Chinese, with Nigeria in third place with 17 licensed companies.

Macajo also told reporters that Portugal, South Africa, Kenya, Brazil, Pakistan, Japan, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Guinea



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are other countries on the list of companies licensed by BAU.

The Executive Director of the Single Service Desk in Tete Province said that in the same period 352 licenses had been issued for various activities, including wholesale and retail trade, services, transport of passengers and goods and industry.

BAU is part of the government platform on public sector reform, with the aim of improving public services through simplification, flexibility and speed of administrative procedures related to the licensing of economic activities.

Source: MacauHub

Angola counts on Mozambican experience to join SADC Free Trade Zone

On Thursday 11 August, the Angolan Trade Minister, Fiel Constantino, said that Mozambique is a case study that can serve to prepare Angola for its effective entry into the SADC free trade zone area. In addition, the minister said that Mozambique has a wealth of experience and knowledge on the matter, which it can share with Angola.

Speaking at the end of a meeting with his Mozambican counterpart, Ernesto Tonela, Minister Constantino said that: “We share a common history and a very similar economy from the point of view of growth and development. It was nice to exchange some views on the advantages and disadvantages of joining SADC free trade zone”.

During the meeting, the two ministers also discussed issues related to the three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)

between the two ministries signed in 2013, relating to the methodological consultation, organisation and staff training. As the MoU has effectively expired, it is expected that the two countries will update the document in the near future to review the terms of co-operation between the two ministries.

In turn, Minister Tonela said that the meeting was fruitful as it provided an opportunity for the two ministries to address issues that will essentially increase trade between the two countries.

Source: Agência Angola Press

Human resources focus in next cycle of China/Africa economic co-operation

The cycle of expansion based on raw materials, which has sustained growth of economic relations between China and African countries like Angola, is playing out and the next opportunity is in human resources, says researcher David Dollar.

In the Brookings Institution study on China’s Engagement with Africa: from natural resources to human resources, the US researcher holds that “the foundation for the Africa-China economic relationship is shifting”, after an in initial period where it was “logical” for the Chinese economy to import African raw materials while exporting back industrial products.

“These patterns of trade and investment are now likely to gradually shift in response to changing demographics. The working-age population in China has peaked and will shrink over the coming decades”. This has led to higher wages and rising domestic consumption, the economy’s most dynamic component, he says.

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The model based on investment and exports is also “running out of steam” and there is excess production capacity in real property, manufacturing and infrastructures, whereby raw material demand should remain muted.

Dollar asserts that Africa’s demographics are heading in the opposite direction, with much resemblance to China before the economic reforms 35 years ago: half of the population is less than 20 years old, so the working-age population will increase in the next two decades, forcing the continent to create 20-million jobs per year.

“Africa’s demographics present both an opportunity and a challenge. It is unrealistic to expect the China-Africa economic relationship to change overnight. Nor would it be reasonable to expect large volumes of Chinese manufacturing to move to the continent in the near future. But if even small amounts of manufacturing shift, this could make a significant difference for African economies”, he explains.

Preliminary conclusions of a study by the China Africa Research Initiative of Johns Hopkins University in the US, recently presented by the researchers Jyhjong Hwang, Deborah Brautigam and Janet Eom, indicate that of the US$86.9-billion of Chinese lending to Africa between 2000 and 2014 (by Chinese government, banks and companies), Angola received US$21.2-billion or 23%of the total.

The China Development Bank was the institution that granted the most credit to Angola (US$11.3-billion), followed by the Export-Import Bank of China (US$7.36-billion) and others (US$2.5-billion).

China should work with African governments to “encourage Chinese firms to hire and train African workers and to limit the flow of labour” to those countries, because there is a greater incentive for companies to hire locally due to the rising cost of sending in expatriate workers, Dollar says.

After analysing the Chinese Commerce Ministry database on companies investing in Africa, he concludes that while the biggest companies focus on extracting natural resources, small and medium-sized ones are above all dedicated to manufacturing and services, which meets the interests of many African economies.

In late July, 39 agreements between Chinese and African companies worth an estimated US$17-billion were signed in Beijing on the side-lines of a meeting held to assess the second China-Africa Forum (FOCAC) Summit, according to Xinhua news agency. The business seminar likewise held during that meeting was attended by more than 400 participants from government agencies, financial institutions, business associations and companies.

Among those present were Mozambique’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Nyeleti Mondlane, and Guinea Bissau’s Minister of Public Works, Construction and Urbanism, Malam Banjai, among other representatives from the Portuguese language countries.

The December 2015 FOCAC Summit in Johannesburg (South Africa) resulted in 10 co-operation plans between China and Africa in the next three years, worth an estimated US$60-billion.

Source: MacauHub

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Global Innovation Index 2016

China joins the ranks of the world’s 25 most-innovative economies, while Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Finland and Singapore lead the 2016 rankings in the Global Innovation Index (GII), released today by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

China’s top-25 entry marks the first time a middle-income country has joined the highly developed economies that have dominated the top of the GII in its nine editions of surveying the innovative capacity of over 100 economies.

Despite China’s rise, an “innovation divide” persists between developed and developing countries amid increasing awareness that fostering innovation is crucial to a vibrant, competitive economy.

“In this current economic climate, uncovering new sources of growth and leveraging the opportunities raised by global innovation are priorities for all stakeholders”, says WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

Fifteen of the top 25 economies in the GII come from Europe. Switzerland retains the top position for the sixth consecutive year. Following regional leaders Sweden and UK are Finland (5), Ireland (7), Denmark (8), Netherlands (9), and Germany (10), which joins the top 10 in 2016.

In Northern America, the US (4) continues to be one of the world's most-innovative nations. Canada is ranked 15th.

In Africa, Mauritius takes the top spot at 53, followed by South Africa (54), Kenya

(80), Rwanda (83), Mozambique (84), Botswana (90), Namibia (93), and Malawi (98).

In Latin America, Chile takes the top spot among economies in the region (44), followed by Costa Rica (45), Mexico (61), Uruguay (62), and Colombia (63). Brazil is at 69.

India, 66, is the top-ranked economy in Central and Southern Asia.

Israel (21) and Cyprus (31) are the top two nations in the Northern Africa and Western Asia region for the fourth consecutive year. Turkey ranks fourth and of the top five in this region, two are from the GCC: United Arab Emirates (41) and Saudi Arabia (49).

Singapore (6), the Republic of Korea (11), Hong Kong (China) (14), Japan (16), and New Zealand (17) lead in the South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania region. The majority of GII innovation leaders are in this region or Europe. Among upper-middle-income economies, China (25), Malaysia (35), and Thailand (52) rank first in the region.

Source: PR Newswire/GII

Financial Services:

Civil Identification Directorate bans ID photocopies in banks, other sectors

The National Directorate of Civil Identification has announced a ban on the use of photocopies of ID cards as the sole means of identification in banks and other sectors, and says citizens must present the original document.

According to a spokesperson for the National Civil Identification Directorate, the measure aims to combat identity theft

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and the subsequent theft of money from bank accounts.

Last week, 16 cases of impersonation using the ID photocopies were recorded in the city of Maputo alone, but no-one has been arrested in connection with the practice because those attempting it flee when they realise their identities are being checked by banks.

Source: O País

Norway-backed fund on hiring spree in Africa finance venture

A new development-finance venture that will control banking and other assets worth more than US$660-million across sub-Saharan Africa plans to hire as many as 20 people, including analysts, to manage its investments and help it spend another US$300-million on acquisitions.

The Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries, the state-owned financier known as Norfund, is pooling its investments on the continent with Dutch lender Rabobank Groep and Dutch development bank FMO to create Arise, which will be based in South Africa.

Arise will start operating in January with investments in 20 African countries and enough funding to be able to reach almost US$1-billion of assets within five years, said Deepak Malik, the Southern African head of Norfund.

“We’re going to go through an extreme recruitment phase, looking for senior investment staff and analysts and more”, he said in an interview in Johannesburg (South Africa), where the company has five employees. “We’ve also got to get regulatory approval in all the African

countries we operate in. That could take us six to eight months”.

The venture will hire 20-25 people over the next six months and is also contemplating moving its sub-Saharan African headquarters to Cape Town, Malik said.

Africa struggles:

Although European banking regulations have made it more expensive to hold foreign investments, Rabobank decided not to exit its African assets and instead established the partnership with Norfund and FMO. Netherlands-based Rabobank, which specialises in agricultural lending, is ensuring its shareholdings are below regulatory thresholds that will require it to set aside capital for the investments.

The formation of Arise comes after growth in sub-Saharan Africa eased to 3.5% in 2015, the slowest pace in 15 years, with the IMF predicting an expansion of 3% for 2016.

Arise’s ambition “is to build strong and stable financial-service providers that will serve retail, (small and medium-sized enterprises), the rural sector and clients who have not previously had access to financial services”, the three partners said in a statement on 4 August.

Norfund’s investments span a solar park in Rwanda, biogas generation in South Africa, a 12.5% holding in Kenya’s Lake Turkana wind project, which will be the largest on the continent, and 12% of Equity Group Holdings, Kenya’s biggest bank by market value.

Young population:

“Africa has the world’s youngest population, the lowest banking penetration

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rate, a weak financial sector in terms of capital and the foreign banks are struggling with regulation in their home markets”, Malik said.

The continent has the lowest access to financial services in the world, with less than a quarter of the population owning a bank account, compared with about 34% in Latin America, according to a 2015 report by the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group. Further, with more than 40% of its working-age population between the ages of 15 and 24, Africa is the youngest continent in the world, UN research shows.

Norfund, which has offices in Johannesburg, Maputo and Nairobi, will have a 48% stake in Arise, FMO will hold 27% and Rabobank just less than 25%, Malik said. Banco Montepio, a Portuguese financial services company, may join the partnership, the companies said in the 4 August statement.

Asset sales:

Norfund has invested about US$2-billion in Africa in the past 13 years. Half of its investments are in clean energy with financial services its next biggest investment portfolio.

It typically takes minority equity stakes and its African investments span countries, including Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“Norfund is already working on two transactions with two listed companies, one in South Africa, and one elsewhere”, Malik said, without giving more details.

“After Arise starts in January we want everyone to get entrenched with the

portfolio in the first six to eight months. You might also see a sell-off in some assets we don’t want to stay in as the new company”.

Source: Bloomberg

Insurance premiums in Mozambique reach US$116-million in 2015

Gross premiums charged by insurance companies operating in Mozambique amounted to MT9.379-billion (US$116-million) in 2015, according to a statement from the Mozambique Institute of Insurance Supervision (ISSM).

Non-life insurance is still the most popular type of insurance in Mozambique, despite a slight decline in the growth rate in the period under review, reducing its share from 86% in 2014 to 81.9% in 2015.

In turn, life insurance increased from 14% in 2014 to 18.1% in 2015. The ISSM also said that global production of the insurance market in 2015 grew by 10.1%, highlighting the life branch that has grown over 20% over the past three years.

The penetration rate of insurance in Mozambique last year reached 1.58%, which is an increase of 0.03 percentage points over 2014. The ISSM also said the insurance market report will become part of the result of the technical account, an innovation intended to improve statistical data on the sector’s performance in Mozambique.

The ISSM noted in a statement that, in addition to the results of the technical account, the report will include information on the supervision of insurance market conduct and financial insurance education.

Source: MacauHub

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Oil and Gas:

Legal expert: Does Africa’s growing LNG supply come with contractual complications?

In the course of the last two decades, Africa has generated a stream of massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, notably in West Africa and on the Mediterranean, so providing the host countries and their producers with a means to bring to market many trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.

Meanwhile, in more recent years, huge reserves of natural gas have been discovered offshore Mozambique and Tanzania, as well as off the coasts of West Africa. Naturally, the host governments and producers aspired to replicate the successful model of commercialising that gas through large LNG export projects.

To attract the levels of debt funding required for these highly capital-intensive

projects, a stable revenue stream is required which is generated by long-term gas sales agreements. Over the last couple of decades, Asian buyers have been key to driving the growth in LNG markets.

However, with economic slowdown in Asia, the steady upward trajectory of LNG demand has tailed off. At the same time, the flood of new LNG supplies from new export facilities in the US and Australia carries with it the real prospect of oversupply in the world markets.

In addition, the prospect of large volumes of US-sourced LNG becoming available to Asian buyers also offers the possibility for them of securing their LNG requirements based on Henry hub pricing, rather than the oil-indexed pricing that has prevailed in long-term contracts with the traditional LNG producers.

As a result, the prospect of LNG volumes becoming available from the US on this competing pricing model is suppressing

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the appetite of buyers to enter into long-term purchase commitments on traditional pricing terms.

Prevailing market conditions, and the resulting squeeze on available debt capital, have been cited as the reason for a number of international energy companies shelving plans to proceed with large gas liquefaction projects in Nigeria and Cameroon.

Increased security concerns have also in some instances compounded the challenges facing planned, as well as on-stream, projects. Witness the recent attack on the NLNG feed gas pipeline at Eleme in River State.

The greatest hurdles arise from the need to align the expectations of the host government and local communities with those of the international developers. First among these challenges is the immense disparity of knowhow and expert resources between these critical stakeholder groups.

In the case of pathfinder projects, the host government is disadvantaged by having little conception of the complex arrangements required to structure, finance and develop an LNG project, nor of the vital contributions that are required of governments in order for an LNG project to proceed to successful implementation.

This imbalance needs to be acknowledged and addressed at an early stage, and the international developers will likely have a key role to play in this.

Developing a strategy for bridging the knowledge gap is critical to building trust and establishing a constructive process whereby the goals and requirements of all

stakeholders can be explored, defined and reconciled in parallel. Such a strategy may, as a minimum, involve the deployment of substantial resources to the training of public officials and community leaders.

From the perspective of host governments, the development of midstream gas infrastructure including LNG liquefaction and export facilities, offers perhaps a unique opportunity to transform the local economy and public finances.

As such, the levels of expectation can be high, and scrutiny can be intense to ensure that the opportunity is not squandered. Unless a healthy measure of trust can be established between the domestic and international stakeholders, the project risks becoming gridlocked.

The strength of the headwinds facing large LNG export projects in Africa has encouraged host governments and producers to explore other means of commercialising natural gas resources. A number of oil majors have been developing strategies based on gas-fired power generation with a view to satisfying the rapidly growing demand for electric power in Africa.

In South Africa and Morocco, for example, LNG imports are seen as the fuel of choice for the back-up generation required to supplement the intermittent power capacity of solar projects. In some cases, floating LNG import and regas facilities (FSRUs) may have a role in making natural gas available for power generation in the growing economies of Africa, provided the cost of any associated marine works are not prohibitive.

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n current market conditions, success in developing LNG demand and commercialising African natural gas requires the careful scaling of projects to develop the necessary gas infrastructure.

Despite the immediate challenges of a depressed market for LNG exports, the medium-term forecasts for the LNG market are encouraging. Demand is forecast to grow at 4% to 6% year on year until at least 2030, and analysis from a number of leading market consultants suggests that, by 2023, we will be entering a very tight global LNG market.

Source: African Business Review/Mathew Kidwell

Mozambique offshore training centre receives accreditation

Instituto Nacional da Marinha (INAMAR) in Mozambique is making preparations for the intensification of offshore E&P activity off the country’s 2,700-kilometre coastline.

This is a public institution with the powers of a maritime authority in areas of maritime jurisdiction. INAMAR also promotes the establishment and maintenance of maritime safety conditions for performing activities at sea.

INAMAR is looking to intensify the regulation of these activities in compliance with the convection of the International Maritime Organization to prevent accidents and environmental damage, or to mitigate the adverse effects of those that do occur.

To this end, and to promote training and safety of maritime personnel in Mozambique, INAMAR, via the Department of the Sea Personnel, has sanctioned accreditation and certification of the Regional Offshore Training Centre

(ROTC) Pemba Bay to run courses on: personal safety and social responsibility; survival techniques at sea; first aid; and familiarisation safety.

ROTC Pemba Bay provides specialised and internationally recognised training for professionals working throughout the supply chain in Mozambique. Its stated mission is to provide all necessary safety training required, in compliance with international standard procedures and laws.

Source: Offshore Magazine

Mining:

Mustang resources discovers new ruby deposit

The Australian mining company Mustang Resources has announced that it has found another ruby deposit at its concession in Montepuez in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

The company is at an early stage of developing the mine and is currently taking small samples from various gravel deposits.

In July, the company announced its first discovery of 10 rubies from its initial sampling programme. According to the Mustang, it has now found a further 19 rubies, bringing the total haul to 29 with a combined weight of 5.79 carats.

Once the mapping of the area’s geological makeup is complete, Mustang will move on to the bulk sampling programme. The sampling will involve processing material at a rate of 800-tons per day to get a better picture of the grade and gemstone size distribution of the deposits.

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According to Mustang’s Managing Director, Christiaan Jordaan, “that our exploration team has recovered 29 high quality rubies to date is very encouraging, and further highlights the potential underlying value to be extracted from the Montepuez Project”.

The Montepuez Ruby Project consists of three licenses covering 15,800-hectares directly adjacent to the world’s largest ruby deposit which is mined by the London-based company Gemfields. So far, Gemfields has held six auctions of Montepuez rubies which have netted a total of US$195-million.

Mustang Resources also has a majority interest in two diamond exploration licences along the Save River, in central Mozambique, downstream from the Murowa and Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe. In addition, Mustang holds the rights to a graphite resource near the world class graphite deposits discovered by Syrah Resources and Triton Minerals.

Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

Xtract updates on Manica Project and Chepica Mine

Xtract Resources said purchasers of the Manica gold project in Mozambique had not yet made an initial payment.

Xtract was recently in talks with Nexus Capital Ltd. and Mineral Technologies International Ltd. over the structure of the deal, which might result in further revisions to terms.

The talks might also result in amendments to Xtract’s existing joint venture agreement with Mineral Technologies International to mine the alluvial gold deposit at Manica, to ensure that all

parties are able to focus resources on their principal objectives at Manica.

The company also announced on 20 July that it had reached agreement with Auroch Minerals that the remaining US$2.5-million due to Auroch, pursuant to the company's acquisition of Manica in June 2015, would be settled in full with the payment of US$750,000 to Auroch on 20 July, and a final payment of US$1.75-million on 12 August, once the initial payment had been received by the company.

The company confirms that is has paid Auroch US$750,000 and recently made a further payment of US$100,000. The parties are in discussions with regard to the final settlement of US$1.65-million.

The review of the Bankable Feasibility Study at Manica is continuing and is now expected to be completed in September this year. The company is currently in discussions with the purchasers regarding an extension to the deadline for completion of the Bankable Feasibility Study.

Source: StockMarketWire.com

Thousands of jobs lost in Mozambican mining industry

Mining companies operating in the Moatize coal basin (Tete Province) have eliminated at least 4,000 jobs since 2015 due to a drop in coal prices on the international market, said a provincial official.

Portásio Aurélio, head of the Department of Mineral Resources of the Tete Provincial Directorate of Minerals and Energy Resources, told reporters, that Vale Moçambique had fired more

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Mozambican workers, with 2,348 of the 3,937 jobs lost.

In the same period Vale fired 520 foreign workers of a total of 535 that are involved in coal mining across the province.

Aurélio also said that if the current situation does not change in the near future, some of these mining companies are at risk of losing the investments made, particularly in processing units and logistical ore transport, among others.

In the first half of the year coal mining yielded taxes on production in the amount of MT166.3-million of MT5.591-billion forecast for the whole of 2016.

Source: MacauHub/Jornal Notícias

Energy:

Mozambican government approves bill on atomic energy

On Tuesday 16 August, Cabinet approved a draft Atomic Energy Law which calls for the safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Speaking to the media at the end of the weekly meeting, government spokesperson and Deputy Minister of Health, Mouzinho Saíde, said that the draft law advocates the use of nuclear technology in medicine, agriculture and industry.

“The bill establishes the legal parameters governing the safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy and its application, protecting individuals, property and the environment of possible accidents and malicious acts using radioactive material”, said Deputy Minister Saíde.

Source: Lusa/dNotícias.pt

Transport & Construction:

Company developing Mozambique’s northern corridor to receive 100 railcars

Merchandise and cereal transport capacity of the Corredor de Desenvolvimento do Norte (CDN) company will be boosted when 100 newly-purchased railcars enter service, CDN spokesperson, Sérgio Paunde, announced.

The railcars, each with capacity of 54-tons, were bought in neighbouring South Africa, an investment of close to US$11-million, Paunde said.

He explained that 22 of the 100 railcars are already at Nampula and that a similar number will soon be delivered. The last delivery should arrive in Mozambique in December of this year at the latest.

CDN has been receiving requests from various clients who wish to transport large quantities of cereals to regions along the Nacala rail corridor which face food shortages due to low harvests in the last agricultural season, Paunde said.

Although positive 2015/16 harvest results were recorded, Nampula Province, for example, needs about 900,000-tons of maize to meet the current demand.

The corporate purpose of CDN is to manage, restore and commercially exploit in an integrated manner the infrastructures of the Port of Nacala and the railway network in northern Mozambique.

It is included in the Nacala Corridor Project involving northern Mozambique as well as Malawi and Zambia.

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CDN’s shareholding structure comprises of Sociedade de Desenvolvimento do Corredor de Nacala, with a 51% stake, and the State-held Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), with the remaining 49%.

Source: MacauHub

Tender Launched for Cabotage Partner

The state-owned shipping and ferry company Transmarítima has launched a public tender to find a partner to develop trade (cabotage) along the Mozambican coastline. The government is planning to expand coastal trade by foreign and national registered ships to reduce congestion along the country’s highways and to lower transport costs.

Currently, Transmarítima only provides ferry services for passengers and their belongings. According to Jornal Notícias, a source in Transmarítima explained that the tender is seeking a private operator with the financial capacity to develop, operate, manage, and maintain the new services.

The tender was launched just days after the Mozambican government approved a decree to encourage the expansion of cabotage. The idea is to promote sea transport route between domestic ports, favouring economies of scale and promoting the reduction of prices, making products more accessible to the population.

In early August, Transport Minister Carlos Mesquita explained that through the decree, foreign ships registered in Mozambique would receive the same treatment and arrangements offered to those sailing under the national flag.

According to Minister Mesquita, “this will create the conditions for the revitalisation of maritime cabotage in Mozambique”.

Under the decree, a series of regulatory instruments will be implemented which will guarantee priority berthing and reduced port tariffs. There will also be a reduction in the fees charged by INAMAR and the National Institute of Hydrography and Navigation (INAHINA). A further measure will be the simplification of customs procedures. The decree was the formalisation of agreements reached in June between the Ministry of Transport and Communications and stakeholders.

On 22 June, Minister Mesquita signed four Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with concessionaires of the ports of Maputo, Beira, Nacala and Quelimane. Under the agreements, port charges will be reduced by 60% in Beira and 50% in Maputo, Nacala, Pemba, and Quelimane. It was also agreed that there be a reduction of 40% in the rates charged to cabotage operators by INAMAR and a decrease in navigation fees charged by INAHINA.

Source: Folha de Maputo/Jornal Notícias/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

Malawi and Mozambique meet over Nsanje Inland Port – Mota-Engil is the contractor

The Malawian Transport and Public Works Minister, Malison Ndau, recently confirmed that he will meet with his Mozambican counterpart on 22 August in Beira (Sofala Province).

“Last week I met the secretary general of the SADC on the same issue. The whole region is now taking the project seriously

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after the feasibility study showed that the Shire Zambezi Waterway project is viable and profitable to the whole region”, he said.

He said the feasibility study reports were already presented to President Peter Mutharika and his Mozambican counterpart, Filipe Nyusi, when the two – along with Zambia President Edgar Lungu – met at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe a few months ago.

“President Nyusi seems to be very interested in this project and I am sure he will help us”, said Minister Ndau.

However, he said that the low water levels in Shire River will not affect the implementation of the project.

Minister Ndau said Mota-Engil will continue to be the contractor for the Nsanje Inland Port.

The Shire Zambezi Waterway project and the Nsanje Inland Port are dream projects of former president Bingu wa Mutharika who envisioned an international port city of Nsanje with its own international airport and international street banks, among others.

Source: Nyasa Times

Share taxi services in parts of Maputo on strike

On Monday 15 August, the share taxi’s that operate along the Albazine-Praça dos Combatentes route in Maputo once again paralysed their activities from 7:00hrs.

The strike was unannounced and left many commuters stranded between Albazine and Xikhelene.

This strike comes just two weeks after another strike in the area carried out by taxi drivers in a bid to force the local authorities to adjust the current rate fare from MT7 to MT9.

One protesting driver told reporters that Monday’s strike was called in order to pressure the authorities to respond to the letter addressed to them [the authorities] by the taxi association.

The striking drivers also argue that the Albazine-Praça dos Combatentes route is longer than other routes, and thus it is more expensive for drivers to operate along this line.

On Wednesday 17 August, share taxi drivers along the Nkobe route in Matola paralysed their activities for approximately four hours in protest against the precarious route to the new terminal and the emergence of illegal operators.

The strike left early morning commuters stranded and unable to reach destinations such as Patrice Lumumba, 1.º de Maio and T-3.

The taxi drivers subsequently parked their vehicles outside the local police station, affecting traffic and access to the area.

According to drivers, the route to the new terminal is degraded and causes damage to their vehicles.

In addition, due to the lack of regulations, a number of unlicensed drivers have begun to utilise the route, affecting the legitimate taxi business.

The strikes were technically illegal as there was no prior notification or announcement.


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Sub-Saharan Africa makes advances in real estate transparency

According to JLL and LaSalle Investment Management's 2016 Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI), while tangible improvements in transparency are being made, sub-Saharan Africa is still some distance from competing equally with its counterparts in the EMEA region.

“Sub-Saharan Africa continues to make advances in real estate transparency, but progress has been patchy with limited development in regulatory and legal reforms and enforcement”, comments Craig Hean, managing director of Sub-Saharan Africa at JLL South Africa.

Improvements in regulatory oversight have great potential to enhance people’s lives and promote greater transparency within the region. High-profile failures of regulation, such as building collapses, have served to highlight that a lack of regulatory enforcement can have devastating consequences.

Hean notes “a growing recognition by governments across the region of the critical role transparent real estate markets can play in a dynamic economy”. He added, “The greater penetration by international real estate consultancies that are promoting professional standards and availability of market data has already begun to improve transparency in some areas”.

Key sub-Saharan Africa highlights:

• Sub-Saharan Africa has continued to make advances in real estate transparency over the last two years, although progress has been more mixed than in 2014.

• Six markets (Botswana, Zambia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Ghana) have recorded reasonable progress in transparency since the 2014 index.

• The improvement from Botswana, Zambia and Ethiopia has secured these countries a position on the ‘global top 10 improvers’ list.

• Despite these advances, the region has seen a slight deterioration in the legislative and operating environment which appears to have stalled in several markets, with two countries – South Africa and Mozambique – registering a noteworthy decline in overall score.

• South Africa, however, remains sub-Saharan Africa’s most transparent market, supported by an active listed sector. It is the only country from the continent to feature in the ‘Transparent’ category.

• Technology is allowing some countries (Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya) to leapfrog the normal transparency evolution process by introducing innovative new ways of improving access to data or to faster, more reliable services.

• Complexities of implementing new regulatory structures and the impact of slowing commodity markets have stalled progress in certain areas.

Anthony Lewis, head of Capital Markets, sub-Saharan Africa comments, “One of the issues currently clouding the sub-Saharan Africa market sentiment is currency and liquidity risk. There is significant uncertainty, especially in Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique and to a lesser extent Zambia, owing to acute US dollar illiquidity and lack of direction on monetary and central bank policies to alleviate this. This compounds transparency risks”.

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The future of real estate transparency:

Despite the slowing of momentum in some markets, there are continuing examples of tangible advances being made around the region. Increased accessibility to market information and scrutiny by international organisations, national governments and communities will continue to advance transparency in the region’s real estate markets.

On the flipside, there are as many examples that confirm that corrupt practices, poor corporate governance and failures in regulatory enforcement are resulting in serious consequences for society and hampering business activity and investment. Investors and tenants will bypass countries unable to address these shortcomings, and will gravitate instead to more transparent markets.

Source: Biz Community

Agriculture & Fishing:

Minister of Agriculture wants greater entrepreneur commitment to Mozambique’s development

Speaking during a visit to CTA headquarters in Maputo on Thursday 18 August, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, José Pacheco, said that greater commitment by entrepreneurs to national development was required.

The minister visited the CTA headquarters to hear about the ongoing preparations for the National Agricultural Seminar scheduled for September.

The seminar will take place 11 to 12 September in Manica, one of the provinces with the highest agricultural production in the country. The event, promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture

and Food Security in partnership with the CTA, attracts hundreds of producers and business people linked to agriculture.

In response, the president of CTA, Rogério Manuel, said that the seminar would be an opportunity to create business and therefore called for maximum participation.

The seminar will consist of an agricultural products exhibition and will take place under the theme ‘Mozambique creating wealth, synergies and partnerships between the public and private sectors for the development of the country’.

Source: O País

Grain prices fluctuate in the country’s markets

Between 1 and 8 August, the prices of cereals and pulses fluctuated in some of the country’s markets. The majority of prices registered an increase.

In general, the highest price for corn was recorded in the markets of Nhamatanda where a kilogram cost MT27.43. The lowest price was recorded in the markets of Gorongosa, where corn sold for MT15.65 per kilogram.

As for cowpeas, there was a 50% increase in the market price in the city of Quelimane, a 25% price increase in Guvuro, and a 12% increase in Inhassouro. Elsewhere the price of cowpeas remained stable.

In terms of butter beans, prices rose by 33% in Panda, 25% in Guvuro and by 8% in Quelimane. However, the market price of butter beans decreased by 30% in the Morrumbala market, 20% in Caia and Gorongosa and by 17% in Mutarara.

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Small, shelled peanuts recorded a price drop in the markets of Mutarara (30%) and Massinga (17%), but increased in the Panda market (18%) and in the Maxixe market (12%).

Meanwhile, the price of large peanuts increased by 12% in the Panda market, 8% in the Maputo market and 6% in Inhambane City.

According to the Information System on Agricultural Markets (Sistema de Informação sobre Mercados Agrícolas, SIMA), the price of rice continues to increase in some markets such as Quelimane (up by 25%), Maxixe town (5%), and Tete (4%). A decline in the price of rice was registered in Guvuro (down by 10%) and Inhassouro (4%).

Wheat flour recorded an increase in prices in the retail markets Guvuro (17%), the City of Tete (7%) and Maxixe (4%). The Chiure market was the only market to register a decrease in the price of wheat flour in the order of 9%.


Mandlakazi to harvest 35,000-tons of corn

The Mandlakazi district (Gaza Province) expects to harvest 35,000-tons of maize by the end of September.

District Director of Economic Activities, Ibrahimo Nurmamad, says 61,000-hectares were sewn over the two growing seasons. Of these, 46,600-hectares were harvested and the remaining 1,800 were lost due to a variety of factors, including the weather.

The Administrative Office of Chibonzane stood out in the current campaign with an estimated 20,000-tons of various

products, with a project funded by South African investors contributing substantially to the figure.

Corn produced in this part of Gaza Province is bagged and sold locally to buyers from neighbouring districts and from Maputo and Inhambane provinces.

Nurmamad considers that the district is on track to eliminate the shortages of corn in Mandlakazi and elsewhere in Gaza Province.

The existence of vast areas suitable for agriculture, irrigation systems for the long-term conservation of water and interventions assisting farmers are all factors that have enabled the achievement of record results in the district’s agricultural crops.

Nurmamad also says that, alongside the record maize production figures, the district has also posted excellent results in the production of sprouts, sweet potatoes, cassava, peanuts, lettuce and cowpea.

However, the poor state of some farm roads requires intervention in order to improve the flow of production to retail and consumer markets.


Cashew factory searching for more workers

The cashew nut processing factory in the district of Murrupula (Nampula Province) has reported that it does not have enough workers to operate at full capacity.

The district administrator, Antonio Saul, told Notícias that this is unusual as the economic crisis that is affecting the whole country has paralysed the activities of

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several local companies, leaving many people unemployed.

Saul added that the owners of the factory have invested in modernising the facility to meet the demands of the market. However, he explained, “the factory needs more than 600 workers to shell the nuts. But unfortunately, there are few people here interested in, or capable of doing this work”.

Murrupula is one of the province’s districts which produces cashew nuts and is developing a large programme as part of the recovery of the Cajuicola Park.

The programme includes the production, distribution and planting of cashew seedlings of various varieties from the nursery in Namitil, in Mogovolas district. Recently, the nursery distributed more than 119,000 seedlings to local farmers. Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

Agricultural business centres open in Mozambique

Twenty-three agricultural business centres that are due to open in Mozambique will increase the production capacity of small farmers in the centre and north of the country, said the US ambassador, at the opening ceremony of the pilot centre.

This centre, opened in Chimoio (Manica Province), is a partnership between the governments of Mozambique and the United States, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), involving grain purchase and sale of seeds and fertilisers, as well as technical support for production and mechanised harvesting.

Ambassador Dean Pittman recognised the inefficiency of distribution and market access, leading to crop failures and food insecurity of small-scale farmers and expressed the hope that this new approach to agriculture would reduce poverty and malnutrition in Mozambique.

The centres, known as ‘3I Farmers Empowerment Hubs’ are managed by the Export Trading Group, which provides most of the funding and will focus on the operation of the marketing outlets for agricultural equipment.

In addition to six centres in Manica, the project with an estimated cost of US$30-million, includes the opening of 17 centres in districts with agricultural potential in the provinces of Tete and Zambézia (central Mozambique) and Nampula (north).

Source: MacauHub

Fishing Ministry invests MT700-million in small scale fishing activities

On Thursday 18 August, the Ministry of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries announced that it will invest MT700-million in the acquisition of 400 small-scale fishing boat engines to boost activity across the country.

This is according to the Director of Fisheries Development Fund, António Mandlate, who was speaking during a visit by Deputy Minister Henriques Bongece.

Thirteen of these engines were delivered on Thursday to the district government of Matutuíne. These engines will benefit 12 fishermen's associations in this part of the country.

Deputy Minister Bongece said that the investment forms part of the Mechanisation Fishing Programme, aimed

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at increasing production and productivity at the community level.

During a meeting with the community, the deputy minister urged residents to invest in fish farming as a way to increase their income and to combat hunger.


Telecommunications:

Introducing SIGMER, the radio spectrum system that will help detect illegal communications in Mozambique

A system to manage and protect the radio spectrum will facilitate the detection of illegal communication systems and resolve interferences between different networks operating in the country.

The new system is called SIGMER (Radio Spectrum Integrated Management and Monitoring), and the technology was presented on Monday 15 August, at the National Communications Institute (Instituto Nacional das Comunicações de Moçambique, INCM), the institution responsible for its operation.

The equipment will facilitate monitoring and control of the spectrum, integrated with management and planning processes to ensure a good quality service from radio, broadcasting and telecommunications operators.

The Director of Radio and Communications Technology at INCM, Hilário Tamele, led the presentation, explaining that the system’s multi-channel broadband architecture allows it to measure signals quickly and accurately in a crowded and complex environment.

He pointed out that SIGMER could detect the misuse of spectrum, resolve cases of

interference between stations and communication networks, and carry out technical verification of national and international radio broadcasts.

Tamele stressed that the technology, which consists management and monitoring modules, will also improve the quality of communications in the country, and support disaster management efforts and the fight against crime.

The source said that in addition to the national control centre in the INCM facilities in Maputo, similar units were installed in Tete and Nampula and have already been operational for a month in the test phase. The main challenges facing SIGMER, Tamele said, was the system’s expansion to other provinces and ensuring a smooth transition from analogue to digital communications.

At a time when the country is dependent on a huge variety of telecommunications systems, from mobile phones and Wi-Fi networks to satellite communication systems, radio spectrum requires rational management based on certain procedures. Administrative and engineering tools for planning and licensing activities, as well as equipment and infrastructure for monitoring and inspection were essential, Tamele said.


Tourism:

“Investment in tourism promotes peace and development” – President Nyusi

On Thursday 11 August, President Filipe Nyusi stressed that the government will continue to mobilise investment in tourism as the sector brings people together,

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unites nations, and promotes multi-sectoral development.

The President was speaking in Maimelane, in the district of Inhassoro, during his three-day working visit to the province of Inhambane.

President Nyusi appealed to the local authorities to concentrate their efforts on productive activities such as tourism, which is one of the country’s greatest assets and an area that can create many jobs.

Tourism is one of the province’s most important industries due to its beautiful beaches, coral reefs, and marine wildlife. The London-based newspaper The Guardian has named Tofo as one of the world’s top 10 surf locations. In addition, this part of the Indian Ocean is home to whales, whale sharks, manta rays and dugongs.

The President said that the district of Inhassoro also has the potential for tourism and other industries that can promote rapid development. He said that: “Inhassoro has everything, it has the sea, mineral resources, natural gas, and today there is even talk of petroleum”.

He added that the government will continue to promote tourism as there are countries that have developed with this as one of their primary sources of income.

The President urged the local authorities and population to take better advantage of the opportunities that also exist in agriculture, fisheries, and livestock production. He recommended that each district focuses on one particular activity such as the cultivation of cashew plants or animal breeding.

However, he also called on Mozambicans to engage in several production fronts to tackle the difficulties arising from natural disasters such as drought and floods, and the international economic crisis.


Other:

Thirty-three countries confirm presence at FACIM

Thirty-three countries have confirmed that they will take part in this year’s edition of the Maputo Trade Fair (FACIM), which takes place between 29 August and 4 September. Three of these countries are participating for the first time.

The event will take place at the same time as the business forum of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). According to the Observador, the government intends to take advantage of the event in order to stress that the current economic crisis in the country is only temporary.

There will be at least 700 foreign companies participating in the event, which is being held at Ricatla, in Marracuene district. There will be an increase in the number of national companies participating, up to 3,200 compared with 2,250 last year.

The Director of FACIM, Octavio Francisco, expects over 94,000 visitors will attend the event – up from 84,000 last year.

According to Domingos, additional marquees will be erected to increase the exhibition space to 33,650 square metres.

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This year’s edition has been hampered by the political and military tensions in the country (the opposition party Renamo is waging a violent campaign in some parts of the centre of the Mozambique which is adversely affecting businesses).

In response, the organisers are working to create the conditions for exhibitors from around the country to attend. It is organising with the national airline LAM to get discounted air tickets for participants. However, the actual exhibitions still need to travel by road, and many will drive along stretches where vehicles have been ambushed by Renamo gunmen.

In another development, the Institute for Export Promotion (IPEX) announced that it had signed an agreement with the Maputo municipal bus company (EMTPM) under which an executive bus will be available to transport exhibitors to Ricatla.

According to the Observador, Portugal will once again be the largest exhibitor at the FACIM.

Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/Observador

Number of pensioners suspended for failing proof of life cut by half

The Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Vitória Diogo, has said that the number of pensioners suspended by the Institute of National Social Security (INSS) for lack of proof of life had fallen from 5,500 to 2,200.

Minister Diogo appealed to pensioners who have not yet regularised their situation to contact their closest INSS office.

Minister Diogo said motivation, commitment and discipline were the priorities that should guide the INSS.

Source: Rádio Moçambique

General Labour Inspectorate suspends 59 illegal workers

At least 59 foreign nationals have been suspended by the General Labour Inspectorate (IGT) for non-compliance of the country’s Labour Law. The 59 foreign nationals were found to be employed in the country illegally. The IGT did not name the companies involved, but mentioned that they were primarily “Chinese and Korean firms”.

The 59 foreign nationals were detected during a national inspection campaign carried out from 11 July to 5 August.

Source: @Verdade

Expired food and medicine destroyed in Tete

On Friday 12 August, the Mozambican authorities in the western city of Tete incinerated expired medicines and foodstuffs valued at approximately MT1.5-million.

The order to destroy the expired goods came from the provincial delegation of the National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE). The INAE Tete provincial delegate, Ofelio Jeremias, said the expired food had been on sale in various shops in Tete city, while the expired medicines had been seized from parallel markets.

He added that some of the goods were seized during INAE inspections, but in other cases honest traders had turned them in.

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“At this moment of crisis, we are redoubling our inspection activities to prevent opportunists, who do not care about public health, from putting their goods on sale, even when they know that they are past their expiry date”, said Jeremias.

Nonetheless, he thought the situation was better than last year, because both citizens and traders were becoming aware of the dangers posed by expired medicines and food. Jeremias praised those who had voluntarily handed over expired goods for incineration.

“These businesses are aware that they should not sell goods that are past their expiry date”, he said.

“But others simply wait for our inspectors to discover that their goods are past the expiry date”.

He added that, so far this year, INAE in Tete has imposed fines of MT500,000 on commercial establishments for violations of the country’s trade legislation.


POLITICS

International mediators prepare to meet with Afonso Dhlakama in Gorongosa

The Joint Committee – comprising of representatives from the government and Renamo – and international mediators in the peace talks are preparing to travel to Gorongosa (Sofala Province) in the coming days to meet the Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, in order to continue discussions about the cessation of hostilities.

The Joint Commission is responsible for studying the mechanisms necessary for the safe visit of mediators to Gorongosa, Notícias reports, adding that it understands “the government is ready to create a security corridor so that mediators can travel freely to where the leader of Renamo is supposedly hiding. Mediators may be accompanied by journalists if they so wish”.

Speaking to the media on Friday 12 August, as spokesperson of the day’s

session of the Joint Commission, José Manteigas (head of the Renamo delegation), said that a substantial approach to the point on the cessation of hostilities has not yet been worked out.

The Commission concluded discussions on Friday on the first item on the agenda – Renamo’s demand to govern the six provinces where it claims to have won the general election in 2014 – having assumed the task of drafting a proposal that addresses the topic of decentralisation. The draft must then be submitted to the National Assembly.

“The Joint Commission will produce a proposal that addresses decentralisation, safeguarding the first point (of the dialogue). This proposal will be a legal instrument to be submitted in the National Assembly”, Manteigas said.

The decisions resulting from the session were taken after the mediators and the Joint Commission delegations shared

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their positions and rationales on the governance of the six provinces.

During the two-hour session on Friday 12 August, the government and Renamo teams (in the presence of international mediators) also discussed the second item on the agenda – the cessation of armed attacks. It was during this discussion that the parties agreed that the mediators should meet Dhlakama to discuss an end to the actions.

Source: Portugal Digital/Jornal Notícias/O País

Mediators propose route out of deadlock

On Monday 15 August, the team of international mediators assisting with the political dialogue between the Mozambican government and Renamo presented a proposal on decentralisation.

The suggestion was based on position papers delivered by the government and Renamo on Friday 12 August. At Monday’s meeting of the Joint Commission, the delegations each suggested alterations to the draft document.

This was the first sign of progress since the Joint Commission dialogue in the presence of the mediators began on 20 July. Up until now, there has been an impasse on the first item on the agenda – the demand by Renamo that it rules in the provinces where it claims to have won the 2014 elections.

Mozambique has 11 provinces, and Renamo wants to take power in Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambézia, Nampula, and

Niassa in the centre and north of the country.

Speaking to the press moments after the end of the four-hour session, the head of the government delegation, Jacinto Veloso, explained that: “By the time that we took, you must have deduced that we did not reach any definitive conclusions. However, some work was done, some important work.

As you know, the mediators, after working with the two delegations, submitted a proposal which was considered in the plenary session. Contributions from the two delegations have led to the introduction of some amendments to the text.

Each delegation will think, will reflect, will make the consultations it finds helpful so that – in the next session – which will take place on Wednesday, we can examine, again, this agenda item with regard to governance in the six provinces”.

Without going into details, Veloso added that: “there are still amendments that have to be discussed and the document could still be modified”.

Under the understanding reached on Friday, the Joint Commission will produce a decentralisation model which will be submitted to the National Assembly.

Not all of the mediators were present at all of the sessions with the Joint Commission.

Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/Jornal Notícias

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Government and Renamo reach consensus on drafting package of laws

The Joint Commission reached an agreement that a legislation package on decentralisation would be drawn up by November, for presentation to the National Assembly.

The agreement was announced on the morning of Wednesday 17 August, at the end of a meeting of the Joint Commission, which discussed only the first point on its agenda – namely the demand by Renamo that it should be allowed to govern the six provinces which it claims to have won in the October 2014 general elections.

A brief statement, read out to reporters by the head of the Renamo delegation, José Manteigas, said that the two sides had reached consensus that the Renamo demand “should be discussed in the framework of national unity and the process of administrative decentralisation, granting more decision-making powers to local state bodies, including financial resources, and the decentralised form of election/appointment of provincial governors”.

This formulation sidesteps the issue of whether provincial governors should be appointed or elected. Under the current Constitution the President of the Republic appoints all the provincial governors. However, Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, wants the right to appoint governors in those provinces which he says were won by his party.

The second opposition party, the Mozambican Democratic Movement (MDM), which is not represented at the

current talks, has insisted that the governors should be elected, and not appointed.

According to the statement, the two delegations agreed to establish a sub-commission charged with drawing up the package of legislation to be submitted to the Assembly. There are seven points in this package, the most important of which is the constitutional amendment necessary to change the way in which provincial governors (and other local state bodies) are appointed or elected.

The sub-commission must amend the Law on Local State Bodies and its regulations, the Law on Provincial Assemblies, and the Law on the Organisation and Functioning of the Public Administration. New laws are to be drafted on the bodies of the provincial governments, and on provincial finances.

Finally, the sub-commission must “re-examine” the 1994 law on “municipal districts”. This law would have made each and every district a municipality. It was never implemented, but was replaced by a gradual approach to municipalisation.

Thus, initially only the 23 urban areas with city status, plus 10 towns (one in each province), were granted municipal status, with directly elected mayors and municipal assemblies. Subsequently, 20 more towns have become municipalities, raising the total number of towns and cities where municipal elections were held in 2013 to 53.

Reverting to the 1994 model of municipal districts may prove difficult to reconcile with current municipal

40


legislation, and would certainly be extremely expensive.

Despite this proposed package of legislation, Renamo still wants some way of ruling the six provinces it claims in the near future, before those laws can take effect. Therefore, the consensual statement from the Joint Commission declared “legal mechanisms should be found for the provisional appointment of provincial governors from Renamo as quickly as possible”.

Under the current Constitution the only possible legal mechanism would be for Renamo to submit names to President Nyusi who would then appoint them as governors.

Renamo has insistently claimed that it won the 2014 elections in the six central and northern provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambézia, Nampula and Niassa.

But this claim is untrue. Dhlakama topped the poll in the presidential election in five provinces (Sofala, Zambézia, Manica, Tete and Nampula), but Renamo only won a majority of votes in the parliamentary elections in Sofala and Zambézia.

In the election for provincial assemblies, Renamo won a majority in Sofala, Zambézia and Tete, while in Nampula both Renamo and the ruling Frelimo Party won 46 seats. In Manica, Frelimo won one seat more than Renamo.

As for the sixth province, Niassa, Frelimo (and Nyusi, who was then its presidential candidate) won in all three elections.

The statement from the Commission said nothing at all about any of the other points on the agenda; in particular, there is no commitment from Renamo to halt military hostilities or to disarm its militia.

As for the proposed meeting between the team of foreign mediators and Dhlakama, this too was not discussed, and no firm date has yet been set for the mediators to visit Dhlakama at his military base in the Sofala district of Gorongosa.

European Union (EU) mediator, Angelo Romano, hailed the agreement on Twitter as “important for the peace of Mozambique”.

Source: Bloomberg/Daily Mail/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

No Renamo governors without cessation of hostilities

On Wednesday 17 August, the government categorically denied that any provincial governors from Renamo will be appointed in the immediate future.

At a Maputo press conference, former security minister Jacinto Veloso, head of the government delegation, denied reports in some areas of the media which implied that the appointment of governors was imminent and did not depend on Renamo ceasing its insurrection in the centre of the country.

“We want to clarify what is really going on, because the news stories circulating may induce Mozambicans and the international community to draw conclusions about a situation which does not exist”, said Veloso.

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But it was not surprising that reporters assumed that the appointment of Renamo provincial governors was a done deal. For on Wednesday morning the Joint Commission issued a statement which said that: “legal mechanisms should be found for the provisional appointment of provincial governors from Renamo as soon as possible”. That statement said nothing at all about disarming the Renamo militia or a cessation of hostilities.

Veloso said that the term “as soon as possible” was “perhaps a mistake”, and had entered the statement because it was the term used by the foreign mediators at the talks.

“But it is clear that ‘as soon as possible’ does not mean in a month’s time”, he added. “It is still necessary to look at what these governors are going to do. What are they going to govern with? How? With what programme? While this is not defined there is no chance of appointing any governor”.

Renamo is insisting on the right to rule six central and northern provinces where it says it won the October 2014 general elections. Veloso stressed that the term “Governance of the six provinces by Renamo” was merely an agenda point in the talks, and does not mean that six provinces are about to be handed over to the rebels.

“If anyone says that the government has already agreed to appoint governors from Renamo for the six provinces, this conclusion is absolutely wrong”, Veloso stressed. “It’s not true. There is this hypothesis. But nobody has said that it is certain. ‘Six provinces’ is the title of an agenda point”.

So how many provinces might be delivered to Renamo governors? “It could be no provinces, it could be two, it could be five, it even could be more, if that’s in the national interest”. He insisted that the Joint Commission is working “not in the interest of Renamo, nor in the interest of Frelimo, but in the national interest”.

Furthermore, there was no question of deciding on the issue of provincial governors in isolation. All the points on the agenda are of equal importance, said Veloso. This includes a cessation of hostilities and the disarming of Renamo. “This is a series of points that have to be implemented, once they are agreed in full”, he added.

The final agreement, he stressed, would not come from the Joint Commission, but from the long awaited face-to-face meeting between President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama.

“The mandate of the commission is to prepare the agreement, and prepare the high level meeting”, Veloso said.

The Wednesday morning statement also said a sub-commission will draw up constitutional amendments and new or amended legislation on such matters as provincial finances and the provincial assemblies. This draft legislation should be ready for submission to the National Assembly “by the end of November”.

But Veloso declared that this deadline, of three and a half months, was “unrealistic”. There are seven items for the sub-commission to consider, all of them complex.

The government delegation, Veloso said, had noted during the meeting that

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the end of November deadline could not be met.

“But Renamo and the mediators said it’s better to leave it as it is, and during its work the commission must check that this is not possible”, he continued. “On this basis, we agreed. If the commission knows, we can leave it in, but in the knowledge that it is unrealistic. We said that, and it’s in the minutes”.

The consensus reached on the first agenda item, entitled ‘Governance of the six provinces’, provides for:

• A timely or substantial revision of the Constitution;

• Review of the Law on Local State Organs and its Regulations;

• Review of the Provincial Assemblies Law;

• Approval of the Law of Provincial Governance Bodies;

• Approval of the Law of Provincial Finance;

• Review of the Law on the Organization and Functioning of Public Administration; and

• Review of the municipalisation model of all districts according to the Law 3/94.

All legislative matters, according to the agreement to be signed by President Nyusi and Dhlakama, have also to pass parliamentary scrutiny.

Previously, José Manteigas, head of the Renamo delegation, speaking on behalf of both parties, had said that: “legal mechanisms [to enable the appointment of provincial governors] should be found as soon as possible”.

The members of the sub-committee had not yet been named as of Wednesday

night, but according to sources, it was expected to commence activities on the morning of Thursday 18 August.

So when would the package of new legislation and constitutional amendments go before parliament? “We don’t know”, Veloso said. “It depends on how much time it takes to draft the legislative packages”.

Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, the government delegation said it was forced by mediators to agree to the proposal relating to the legislative package.

The next point on the Joint Commission’s agenda is a cessation of hostilities. Veloso said the government delegation has already proposed that this be taken in two parts – first “an immediate suspension of all armed actions”, which it regarded as “essential” to allow discussions to continue on the remaining agenda points.

This would be followed by a definitive cessation of hostilities, to be announced at the meeting between President Nyusi and Dhlakama.

The leader of the Party for Peace, Democracy, and Development (Partido para a Paz Democracia e Desenvolvimento, PDD), Raul Domingos, considered any agreement between the government and Renamo “positive”, since it implies the end of the armed conflict, but he goes on to warn that the mere appointment of governors proposed by Renamo for the provinces claimed by this party could be a “poisoned gift” to Dhlakama.

The former Renamo number two said that it makes no sense for governors

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appointed by Renamo to work within an administrative structure dominated by Frelimo.

“They [the governors] should have decision-making power, to create their own work team, including the appointment of provincial directors and district administrators”, Domingos said.

“We need to end this situation where the candidate who gets 51% wins everything and the one who gets 49% loses everything. We must find a way to empower the person who gets 49% of the votes cast. It makes no sense to ignore a candidate who have this level of support in the polls”, said Domingos.

Dialogue:

Negotiations between the government and Renamo are taking place after international mediators held separate meetings with the delegations recently to develop their positions and build consensus.

The Joint Commission will deliberate in the coming days on the cessation of hostilities and the date of the mediators’ visit to Gorongosa, where Dhlakama is currently residing.

The last few weeks have been marked by an escalation of armed attacks attributed to the largest opposition party, focusing on police stations, district government facilities, health centres and columns of civilian vehicles. In turn, government forces are accused of intensifying the siege of Gorongosa.

Source: Deutsche Welle/Folha de Maputo/STV/O País/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/Bloomberg

Mozambique: peace deal? – Deutsche Welle

Tension is rising in Mozambique. The government and Renamo are locked in negotiations to hammer out a peace deal, but there are conflicting reports as to whether they have succeeded.

When Renamo’s chief negotiator José Manteigas faced the press in Maputo on Wednesday 17 August, he said the government and Renamo had reached an initial agreement which would pave the way for “lasting peace”.

Under the deal, Renamo-appointed governors would take power in six of Mozambique’s 11 provinces, which the party claimed it won in the 2014 general elections, Manteigas maintained.

Both sides had also agreed on the way forward to decentralise power in Mozambique, a key Renamo demand, he added.

‘There is no decision’:

“The President’s delegation and the Renamo delegation agreed to establish a sub-committee tasked with preparing a legislative package to come into force before the next election”, Manteigas told reporters.

But only a few hours later, hopes that the simmering conflict between Renamo and the government would now come an end were dashed.

Chief government negotiator Jacinto Veloso said that: “there is no decision at all. And if anyone says that the government has agreed to appoint governors from Renamo for six provinces that is wrong. It is not true”.

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Wednesday’s confusion about the peace deal raises fears of more violence in the former Portuguese colony. A decade-long civil between both sides claimed more than a million lives. It came to an end in 1992. In 2015, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama went into hiding again after he had lost presidential elections to government candidate Filipe Nyusi.

A propaganda war?

The two sides entered into peace talks in early August 2015. They were joined by a mediating team chaired by Botswana’s former president Quett Masire. Representatives of the Catholic Church, the European Union and South Africa were also present. But while the talking continued, the country was engulfed in a fresh wave of violence.

Shots were fired at civilians, government buildings were set ablaze and roads were blocked. There were attacks on trucks and freight trains. Six people died in a brutal raid on a village in Sofala Province in central Mozambique a few days ago. The government blames Renamo fighters for the lethal attack. A local newspaper said it was the work of government troops.

Deutsche Welle’s correspondent in Sofala, Marcelino Mueia, says the conflict in Mozambique is being accompanied by a propaganda war.

“The police always tell us that the attackers are Renamo supporters. But we hear from the population that government troops are behind the attacks. It is difficult to say which version is correct”, he said.

Thousands fleeing violence:

Many observers are warning that the country is slipping back into civil war with dramatic consequences for the rural population. Thousands of people have fled to neighbouring Malawi. According to official government statistics, more than 2,300 people now live in displaced people’s camps inside Mozambique.

“Especially teachers, nurses and administrative officers are fleeing certain areas. They are trying to find shelter in safe cities such as Quelimane, Beira or Nampula. They say it’s impossible to stay in areas affected [by the conflict]”, Mueia said.

Deutsche Welle understands that some areas affected by the fighting have run out of food. Hospitals and schools have closed. In Manica Province alone, some 22,000 children can no longer attend lessons. Maputo has not been hit by violence and many residents think that the conflict does not affect them. “That’s wrong” says Salomao Muchanga from civil society group Youth Parliament.

Mozambique’s economy is suffering because of the conflict. The fighting has severed important transport arteries for consumer goods. Shortages can be expected to lead to rising prices. Coal exports – one of Mozambique’s biggest earners – have collapsed following repeated attacks on the Sena rail route to Beira Port.

“All Mozambicans are suffering because of the violence”, Muchanga said. “We have to increase the pressure on both parties to the conflict. We do not want the old parties and their representatives to impose a new war on us”.

Source: Deutsche Welle

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Thursday’s Joint Commission meeting ends in silence

The government and Renamo delegations returned to the negotiation table on Thursday 18 August, but the talks seemly amounted to nothing following Wednesday’s controversial announcements.

The meeting on Thursday, which took place in the presence of the international mediators, lasted more than four hours, and upon leaving the conference room, both delegations refused to give statements to the media.

“Today we will not talk, the meeting will continue tomorrow [Friday]”, said Mario Raffaelli, former mediator in the 1992 General Peace Agreement and EU representative in the talks.

Source: Renascença

Frelimo appeals to the Joint Commission to work within terms of reference

The Frelimo Political Commission has urged the government and Renamo delegations to work within the terms of reference of their mandate.

The appeal comes in a press release received by Notícias on Wednesday 17 August, at the end of the 71st Ordinary Session of the party’s highest organ which took in an overview of the current political, economic and social situation of the country.

The Frelimo body declared itself pleased by the continuing openness of the President and the party to productive and open dialogue with the leader of Renamo and other forces in society, with a view to finding solutions

for effective and lasting peace and the well-being of all Mozambicans.

The Joint Commission this week reached some consensus which will have to be ratified at the meeting between the President Filipe Nyusi and the Renamo leader.

With regard to military hostilities, the Frelimo Political Commission reiterated its condemnation of Renamo attacks which resulted in civilian deaths, looting and vandalising of health facilities and the destruction of social and economic infrastructure, which, according to the commission, prove that Renamo is an enemy of peace and the welfare of Mozambicans.

In the same context the political commission applauded the Mozambican people for their attitude of courage and determination in the face of adversities imposed by Renamo’s actions and the drought, which, in association with the international environment, has raised the cost of living, and encouraged all segments of society to continue to multiply initiatives aimed at preserving peace, tranquillity and harmony among citizens and increasing production and productivity towards development.

“The Political Committee welcomes the strong action of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique and the Defence and Security Force in preventing and combating crime, the protection of populations and the maintenance of public order, security and tranquillity throughout the national territory”, the statement reads.

After praising the President for the working visits made to the provinces of Inhambane and Manica, the Policy

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Commission positively assessed the ongoing work for the preparation of the 11th Congress due to take place from 26 September to 1 October 2017, setting the party to work on the principle that “Victory is to be prepared, victory is to be organised!”


US says politico-military tension could harm co-operation with Mozambique

The United States ambassador to Mozambique, Dean Pittman, says that the ongoing political and military tension in the country is damaging.

Speaking on Wednesday 17 August, on the side-lines of the inauguration of an agricultural inputs storage and supply facility in Manica (click here to follow link to related article), Ambassador Pittman said that the United States has co-operated with Mozambique for many years and, in this sense, peace is necessary because the growth and development of the economy depends on this essential factor, and without peace, co-operation between the two countries may be affected.

“In this conflict, it is only the people are who are suffering”, Ambassador Pittman said, adding that: “fortunately the two sides are talking, and dialogue is very important”, and, in his view, is cause to hope for the settling of the dispute between the government and Renamo.

Ambassador Pittman said that: “as partners and friends of Mozambique, we (the US) will do anything” for peace in Mozambique.

Source: O País

“Conditions exist for the disbandment of Renamo” - Roque Gonçalves

According to Mozambican jurist, Roque Gonçalves, the conditions currently exist for the disbandment of the Renamo party.

“There is no doubt that it is possible to commence the outlawing process of Renamo, this is one aspect. Another aspect has to do with a total silence on the part of some entities that normally organise protests when the government steps out of line. This time there is silence. I would like to see the declaration of some civil society organisations”, said Gonçalves.

Source: Folha de Maputo

New political party launched in Nampula Province

The ‘Alternative Movement of Mozambique’ (Movimento Alternativo de Moçambique, MAMO) is the name of a new political party in Mozambique, with headquarters in the northern city of Nampula.

The founders of the party, mostly former members of the MDM, say they decided to create a new party because of the lack of transparency within the MDM.

MAMO secretary general, Estevao Fatima, confirmed that most members of his movement are MDM dissidents who do not agree with the way the party is run by Daviz Simango.

“There is no transparency in the MDM, and there is much tribalism. Notice that, all over the country, many leaders of this party come from Beira, where the national headquarters is located, as if

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there were no people capable of leading the party in the provinces”, Fatima says.

The launch of the new party comes at a time when Simango is in Nampula on an official party visit. Approached on the issue, the leader of MDM welcomed the initiative and said it would only augment democracy in the country.

“I can only say that there is room for more political parties in Mozambique, and the creation of this movement is welcome”, Simango said.

Source: Folha de Maputo/A Bola

President Nyusi pleased with advancements in Manica

On Sunday 14 August, President Filipe Nyusi gave a positive report on his three-day working visit to Manica Province. He said that during his tour, which took him to the districts of Mossurize, Macossa, Vanduzi and Macate, he had seen clear signs of economic growth.

The President stated that he had been shown examples of the newly inaugurated socio-economic infrastructure that had been promised to the electorate during his presidential campaign in 2014. These included access roads, schools and hospitals, water pumps, and an expanded electricity supply.

President Nyusi also spoke of the enormous potential of the province, with international investors attracted to agriculture, tourism, and mining. He argued that: “these investments are gradually changing the region”, which is encouraging the government to continue

with its efforts to improve the quality of life.

The President noted that some of the province’s products are now sold on the international market and are competing globally due to their high quality. In particular, he mentioned avocados, millet, various types of beans, fruit, and peri peri chillies grown by companies such as Westfalia Fruit and Vanduzi.

The President noted that Manica Province hopes to return to its position as the country’s granary.

However, the President added that he had also witnessed first-hand the consequences of the drought and the impact of the attacks by Renamo in the region. He lamented that Renamo attacks are continuing against people, property, and even animals.

President Nyusi said that he did not find the intensification of attacks attributed to Renamo strange, because Afonso Dhlakama’s party had always acted like this. “I am not surprised, because we know what Renamo is like. The opposite (not attacking) is what we find strange. Renamo has always attacked everything: wealth, animals in the woods, people’s fields. Now it is extorting money. These are not accusations that the government or the people are making up”, said President Nyusi.

However, the President said that some elements of the media hide Renamo atrocities. President Nyusi said that he respected editorial freedom, but condemns invention.

“We are free and each one should say what he wants, based on their editorial

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line. We understand this and we currently have freedom of expression”, the head of state said, arguing that the media is free to disclose the information, “provided they do not hide nor invent what is not the case. But if they choose to say nothing, there is no problem”.

President Nyusi said that in the rallies he held in the districts of Macossa, Mossurize Vanduzi and Macate, people argued that the FADM should not be removed from the administrative posts where they are stationed, because they are defending the people. “The people answered in chorus: ‘No!’ And they are asking for the presence of the Defence and Security Forces in administrative posts, localities and neighbourhoods”.

Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/O País

Prime Minister visits Niassa Province

On Thursday 18 August, Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário commenced a working visit to Niassa Province where he will monitor the degree of implementation of the programme outlined in the government’s Five-Year Plan for improving the living conditions of the population.

During his visit, which ends on Sunday 21 August, Prime Minister Rosário will inspect activities in the agriculture, infrastructure, energy and tourism sectors.

On Thursday the Prime Minister learnt that global production in Niassa reached more than MT15-billion in the first half of this year. This represents an increase of 8.5% compared to the same period last year, when the province had reached only MT14-billion.

The agriculture, tourism, industry and trade and fishing sectors are the main contributors to the development in Niassa, according to a report presented by the Niassa government.

The document, presented by the governor of Niassa, Arlindo Chilundo, indicated that the production of cereals and cash crops and forest plantations were the main drivers of the province’s economy.

During his four-day visit, the Prime Minister will visit the construction site along the Lichinga-Litunde section of national highway 14, the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Lichinga-Cuamba railway line and pine and eucalyptus plantations in Chinbunila district.

Source: Journal Notícias/Rádio Moçambique

OJM organises peace march in Matola

On the morning of Saturday 13 August, more than 100 people marched through the streets of Matola (Maputo Province), calling for peace under the theme “I Love My Country”. The aim of the demonstration was to condemn the current politico-military situation in the country, particularly in the central and northern regions.

The event was organised by the Organization of Mozambican Youth (OJM), the social arm of the Frelimo Party.

Speaking on the occasion, Moisés Muthimba, first secretary of Frelimo in Matola, emphasised dialogue as the fundamental basis for the achievement of peace in Mozambique.

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In turn, Paulina Chaúque, secretary of the OJM in Matola, said that the march demonstrated the indignation of the people of Mozambique.

Julião Vilanculos, OJM member in the city of Matola, told reporters that the youth is tired of all the destruction in the country.

The demonstrators marched for approximately two-kilometres through several arteries of Matola, chanting “We want peace” as they went.

The demonstrators called for the involvement of the population in promoting peace.

Source: O País

SECURITY

President condemns escalation in Renamo attacks

On Friday 12 August, President Filipe Nyusi condemned the escalation of armed attacks in some parts of the country by Renamo gunmen.

The President was speaking in Espungabera, Mossurize district, on the first day of a working visit to the central province of Manica.

President Nyusi said that the attacks were making it impossible to improve the living conditions of the nation’s citizens. He warned that there are people who are prepared to do “whatever is necessary, whatever the cost”, to take power.

The President was clearly speaking of Renamo’s violent campaign to seize power in the parts of the country where it claims to have won the 2014 elections. Mozambique has 11 provinces, and Renamo wants to govern in the central and northern provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambézia, Nampula, and Niassa.

The President condemned an ambush that took place on Friday morning in

Chiuala, in Báruè district in the north of Manica Province. The victims of the attack were a team of journalist travelling to Macossa to cover the President’s visit to the district. According to reports, cars belonging to Rádio Moçambique and TVM were fired upon, resulting in one occupant sustaining a minor injury.

Renamo gunmen on Friday also attacked the town of Morrumbala in the central province of Zambézia. During the attack, the town’s health centre was vandalised and set on fire after the gang had stolen medicines and other material. The home of the district administrator was also damaged in the assault. According to the administrator, Pedro Sapange, the men also set fire to a police vehicle and freed prisoners from the police cells.

President Nyusi stressed that these attacks, and the many other assaults, were the polar opposite to the efforts of the government’s search for peace.

He lamented the fact that there are Mozambicans who are obliged to abandon their houses out of fear of those “when we speak of peace, they

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hear the opposite”. He added, “someone wants to show that he is bigger and stronger than the people”. However, “the acts of these individuals are disturbing the lives of all citizens”.

The President stated that: “we sympathise with our brothers who, day after day, are affected by these men that are trying to take power by force”.

In his speech, the President stressed that Mozambicans want schools, hospitals, piped water, electricity and food. He added that the people cannot be held to ransom by warmongers.

The President announced the government’s intention to bring electricity to the town “even if others oppose such initiatives”.

Speaking about the agricultural potential of the province, President Nyusi argued that Manica could feed the entire country if it only had a climate of peace and security.

The President invited those attending the rally to present their concerns. Some called for a permanent police presence in the area to offer protection against assaults by Renamo. Local resident Helena Joao Gogoio said, “these individuals from Renamo have intensified their attacks because they know that there are no police or soldiers in the area”.

Farmers told the President that the armed Renamo men prevented them from tending to their land, resulting in a 7.7% decrease in production.

Another resident suggested that a tea processing factory be established in the area.

During his time in Espungabera, the President visited an agricultural fair and inaugurated a water supply system which will provide drinking water to 11,000 people.

On Saturday, the President visited the district of Macossa, followed by Vanduzi and Macate.

Accompanying the President on his tour of the province were the Minister of the Interior, Jaime Monteiro; Minister of State Administration, Carmelita Namashulua; Minister of Education, Luís Ferrão; the governors of Manica and Inhambane, Alberto Mondlane and Daniel Chapo; and staff from the President’s office.

Source: Africa News/The Zimbabwean/Lusa

Defence Ministry: FADM will not tolerate Renamo assaults on the population

On Thursday 18 August, the National Director of Defence Policy at the Ministry of Defence, Colonel Cristovão Chumbe, announced that the Defence and Security Forces will not tolerate the continuation of Renamo attacks which threaten the lives of the people, reiterating the FADM’s determination to hunt them [armed Renamo men] down to their last hiding place.

Chumbe said that his institution had decided to call journalists together to publicise the fact that the Ministry of Defence had indeed noted the escalation of violent attacks by Renamo against the people, their property and public infrastructure.

According to the colonel, Renamo seems to be distancing itself from the

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line that its attacks are directed against the FADM. “What we see today is that Renamo’s priority is to kill people and destroy all that they have”, he said.

In this context, one military official called on the Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, to immediately and unconditionally cease all attacks and to join in the efforts towards peace, collaborating in the ongoing process to arrange a meeting with President Filipe Nyusi.

Colonel Chumbe listed that armed attacks perpetrated by Renamo in the past two months. He said that in the early hours of Wednesday 17 August, armed men under Dhlakama’s command staged an attack on the town of Mepinha, administrative post headquarters of Morrumbala district (Zambézia Province), but without casualties, “thanks to the prompt response of Defence and Security Forces”. However, damage to property was reported.

According to the colonel, this attack came just hours after an encouraging degree of consensus was achieved in the Joint Commission.

“The work of the Joint Commission has filled Mozambicans with the hope that peace and tranquillity will be restored as soon as possible. However, the attack, which occurred on the very same day (Wednesday) is the latest in a series that has been perpetrated by armed Renamo men”, he said.

Colonel Chumbe subsequently listed 17 attacks perpetrated by armed Renamo men in the period under discussion in Niassa, Zambézia, Tete, Manica, Sofala

and Inhambane provinces, which had resulted in deaths and material damage.

“Generally speaking, the ‘modus operandi’ of Renamo is to attack administrative posts in order to vandalise public infrastructure necessary for the population; ignite official documents against the interests of the population, and steal movable property”, he said.

He added that health centres were also attacked, medicines and medical and surgical equipment were stolen, and hospital property, ambulances and even material used in childbirth destroyed, endangering the lives of patients and health personnel. Renamo also target prisons to release detainees, many of whom are involved in violent crimes.

“In this situation, the FADM conclude that Renamo carries out such actions as a way to create terror in the population, deflect attention from political dialogue and maintain instability in the country”, one military officer said, reiterating that Renamo conducts incursions in the country’s central region particularly, targeting the Muxungué-Save section of the EN1, where, in addition to placing barricades, and digging holes in the road, it robs private vehicles, taking goods from the occupants and extorting money.

Accordingly, the official said, the FADM strongly condemns such acts, which it considers barbaric. “We call on the population to remain calm, stay firm, and be vigilant and cooperate with the FADM by denouncing any strange movement they might observe”.

Source: Jornal Notícias/Observador

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Police prevent Renamo assault on Nhamatanda

On Thursday 11 August, the PRM forced suspected Renamo gunmen to abandon a planned attack on the town of Nhamatanda (Sofala Province).

The police managed to disrupt the attack and arrested four members of the gang which included a fighter with the nominal rank of Major (some reports claim that he is in fact a General). The rest of the armed group abandoned the area in disarray.

The four detained fighters were members of the advance party preparing to attack the district police command.

The district administrator, Boavida Manuel, said that the action of the police was in response to information provided by the public who had noticed strange movements by unknown people in various villages including Nhancoca and Mbebedo.

He explained, “here in Nhamatanda we have known that Renamo gunmen were approaching the town with the intention of assaulting the police station. However, our forces managed to repel the advance group”.

According to the administrator, the situation has returned to normal in the town despite the climate of fear caused by Renamo’s actions. He appealed for residents to be calm but to maintain vigilance.

Boavida said that there were reports of other armed men from Afonso Dhlakama’s movement circulating in some of the district neighbourhoods, but

the authorities were poised to pacify Renamo action of any kind.

In the meantime, the alleged Renamo Major/General is currently being questioned.

Source: Africa News/The Zimbabwean/A Bola

Six dead in Cheringoma – government blames Renamo, but survivors blame PRM

The Mozambican police have been accused of executing at least six civilians in the central province of Sofala on Friday 12 August, by two men who allegedly managed to escape the attack.

Daniel Macuácua, police spokesperson for the province of Sofala, told STV that a burnt out vehicle and six charred bodies had been discovered in the village of Nago, Cheringoma district.

Macuácua said that, according to his information, the attack was carried out by armed men belonging to opposition group Renamo. However, the two witnesses who survived the alleged attack told STV that their attackers were members of the police.

In an interview broadcast on Sunday 14 August, one of the men, in hospital in the town of Caia, told STV how the vehicle carrying seven Mozambicans and two Bangladeshis was stopped by the police who asked to see their identification documents.

The officers subsequently ordered the group into a police vehicle and drove them to an unknown destination in the countryside to kill them, he told STV.

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“When we arrived in the bush, the police started taking the Mozambicans out of the car one by one, and shooting them there on the spot”, the man told STV on the condition of anonymity. “When they came for me, I jumped out and started running. I was shot and fell down in the bush”.

The other escapee was one of two Bangladeshis who were in the group. “When we stopped in the bush, they took the Mozambicans out, lined them up, and started shooting them one by one.

Two Mozambicans started running away, but they were shot and fell unconscious. The police assumed they were dead, so they left them and came to shoot us two”. He said he did not know what happened to his fellow Bangladeshi after he fled.

STV said the group was travelling between Marromeu and Caia, a town on the triple border between Sofala, Zambézia and Tete provinces, when they were stopped. The burned car and bodies were discovered in Cheringoma, a neighbouring district, and the escapees emerged in Caia.

The identity of the victims is not yet known. Macuácua said a police team is working to find out the facts surrounding the attack, but pointed out that there have previously been Renamo attacks in the area.

Macuácua said that local residents confirmed that they had heard shooting but had not investigated out of fear for their safety.

Renamo spokesperson, Antonio Muchanga, denied the accusations,

telling Zitamar by phone on Monday 15 August that Renamo does not do “that type of atrocity”, saying that Macuácua’s accusation was “nonsense” and made only to sully the image of Renamo.

Source: Folha de Maputo/O País/Zitamar News/STV/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

Police insist Renamo committed murders on road to Caia

The Mozambican police are insisting that Renamo was responsible for last Friday’s ambush in the central province of Sofala, in which six people were murdered and their bodies burnt.

The murders occurred in Nango locality, in the district of Cheringoma, about 250-kilometres from Beira. The vehicle carrying eight people (six Mozambicans and two Bangladeshis) was heading for Caia on the south bank of the Zambezi.

The attack was immediately attributed to Renamo, which has a lengthy track record of ambushing vehicles in Sofala. However, two of the occupants survived the ambush, and they told the independent television station STV that the vehicle was attacked, not by the rebels, but by the Mozambican police and military.

Faced with this accusation, the spokesperson for the General Command of the Mozambican police, Inácio Dina, told reporters in Maputo on Tuesday 16 August, at his weekly press briefing, that Renamo gunmen are now disguising themselves as members of the Defence and Security Forces.

“People should be attentive because these men are going to pass themselves off as the defence forces in order to

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carry out their crimes”, said Dina. “They will disguise themselves in order to confuse Mozambicans when they carry out these barbaric acts. People must remain vigilant because at any time the Renamo bandits are going to use this trick”.

Dina insisted there was no question of real police or soldiers carrying out such ambushes. “There is no doubt that the attacks in that area are carried out by Renamo gunmen”, he said. “These actions are the work of the armed bandits of Renamo”.

As for the categorical claims made by the survivors, Dina said that: “We should be aware that in moments of panic, an individual may draw various conclusions”, and might even hallucinate. However, “the point is that the bandits are using various tactics to confuse people”.

Dina seemed to have forgotten that this year there was one well-attested case of soldiers ambushing a vehicle and trying to blame Renamo for the attack. In February the police arrested two soldiers, Arquimedes Bernardino and Borges Francisco dos Anjos, accused of attacking a civilian vehicle, and injuring three of its occupants.

The attack, cited by Diario de Moçambique, took place in the Nkondezi region, on the boundary between Tsangano and Moatize districts, and near the Malawian border. The police believe the two soldiers turned bandits intended to blame Renamo for the attack.

The vehicle targeted was a truck carrying assorted merchandise which the soldiers intended to loot. But things

went wrong for them when the driver refused to obey their order to stop and drove his truck straight through the ambush. Although wounded in the arm, he continued to drive assisted by his son. The soldiers opened fire on the truck, injuring two passengers in addition to the driver.

According to the paper, this was the second attack in the Nkondezi region attributed to members of the armed forces. The attack resulted in injuries to five people. The authors were not caught, but eye-witnesses insisted that the attackers were wearing uniforms of the FADM. The police were able to track down the culprits for the February attack, who both confessed.

In the regular weekly police press briefing, Dina also revealed that there is an ongoing investigation into the causes of a Mercedes Benz catching fire in the early hours of Saturday 13 August, after crashing on the Maputo Ring Road. However, Dina characterised the overall operational situation last week as reasonable, thanks to the clarification of 105 of the 127 criminal cases registered. Of these crimes, 73 were against property. In the same period of 2015, 96 cases were registered. There was also a reduction in crimes against the person from 49 to 41.

Source: O País/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

Renamo uses FADM uniforms to camouflage barbarities – Folha de Maputo

Armed Renamo men have been wearing uniforms similar to those of the FADM in order to camouflage their atrocities in the central region of the country,

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Mozambican online publication Folha de Maputo reports.

According to one member of the military escort brigade on the Manica-Tete road, the tactic of dressing in uniforms resembling those of the FADM has served not only to hide Renamo’s culpability for crimes committed, but has also discredited government troops, reads the same source.

The soldier told Folha de Maputo that this Renamo tactic is nothing new. “It is a war of propaganda”, he says.

“Do you remember the revelations of the population fleeing from some districts of Tete to Malawi? That was the work of Renamo.

They wear a uniform that looks like the FADM, and terrorise the population, plundering their goods, food and money.

And this is seen as the work of FADM while it is actually Renamo’s doing. Has anyone ever wondered who feeds the Renamo guerrillas? They keep stealing from communities”, he explained.

The man said it was almost impossible for a force that is deployed to ensure the security of the population to engage in a criminal act such as this.

“There is control over what we do, when we set out on a mission and when we return”, he said.

Mozambique police recently accused Renamo of having attacked a car and burnt traders to death in Caia district (Sofala Province).

Source: Folha de Maputo

One dead and one wounded in another attack in central Mozambique

According to the Observador, on Saturday 13 August, armed men (allegedly from Renamo) launched a second attack in as many days in Báruè district (Manica Province).

The attack targeted a column that was travelling along the Catandica-Vanduzi stretch of the EN7, nearby to the area where President Filipe Nyusi was scheduled to meet with locals as part of his working visit to the province.

According to reports, the attack led to the death of one person, while another individual was injured.

Journalists in the area reported seeing a dead body covered in a white cloth being transported near the headquarters of Vanduzi district at 18:00hrs.

According to one driver, “The Catandica-Vanduzi column was attacked at the end of the day, and there are injured who were being transported in a passenger van”.

The EN7 road, linking the provinces of Manica and Tete, has been the target of frequent ambushes attributed to armed Renamo men.

The attack came shortly after two cars were ambushed in the area on Friday morning by suspected Renamo men.

In the early morning attack, gunmen shot at two cars belonging to journalists from Rádio Moçambique and TVM.

The cars were transporting journalists who were mobilised to the area in order to cover President Nyusi’s visit.

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(See Column carrying Manica government staff and journalists attacked in Báruè while en-route to receive President Nyusi - page 59 Rhula Weekly No. 143).

Source: The Observador/VOA Português/Radio France International

Renamo’s attack on journalists is a war crime – union

Two vehicles carrying Mozambique radio and television reporting teams en-route to Macossa district (Manica Province) to cover President Filipe Nyusi’s working visit were attacked last week. There were no fatalities, but one journalist was injured by flying glass.

Eduardo Constantino, Secretary General of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ) strongly condemned the attack and expressed his concern about what the union says are war crimes perpetrated by Renamo.

As Constantino explained, in accordance with international conventions, particularly the Third Geneva Convention on Press Freedom, an attack on journalists in the course of pursuing their profession constitutes a war crime.

“In this context, the National Union of Journalists reported this event to the International Federation of Journalists as a war crime”, Constantino said on Saturday 13 August. According to the union leader, there was no justification for Renamo to act this way, because the attack was carried out on well-identified cars.

“Attacks in general and on journalists in particular have no justification”, he said.

Chairman of the Media Institute for Southern Africa in Mozambique (MISA-Mozambique), Fernando Gonçalves, said that the Renamo attack on journalists is a flagrant violation of press freedom and that he also considered it a war crime in the light of international conventions. He said that there is no justification for such a barbaric act, and that Renamo, above all, should respect the work of the media in the country.

“They were duly identified as travelling journalists. No matter what body they belong to, the truth is that they were on mission and, as such, protected by law”, Gonçalves said, adding that acts of this nature should not be allowed in the country.

On Monday 15 August, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned Friday’s attack against journalists, and called for authorities to act swiftly in order to arrest the attackers.

The attack was similarly condemned by the Higher Mass Media Council (CSCS), the watchdog body on press freedom and the right to information established under the Mozambican Constitution. It noted that the vehicles were clearly identified, which means that the assault was not a matter of bad luck but intentional. The CSCS called for the perpetrators to be tried and convicted in court.

The former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, said that the attack against journalists was a violation of the right to information.

Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/Jornal Notícias/Folha de Maputo/A Bola

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Two FIR units deployed to Morrumbala

Two units of the Rapid Intervention Force, commonly known as FIR, were mobilised to Morrumbala district (Zambézia Province), the scene of an invasion by suspected armed Renamo men on Friday 12 August.

Ernesto Serrote, police spokesperson for Zambézia, told Diário da Zambézia that FIR brigades stationed in Sabe and Nicoadala were called to respond a few hours after the Friday attack.

The Renamo men vandalised the district hospital and looted drugs, created havoc in the local administration headquarters and broke into the police District Command, where they released 23 prisoners.

As Diário da Zambézia reported after the attack on Mopeia village on 30 July, one of the motives behind the assault was the release of a Renamo man who was detained at the local police station.

Therefore, Diário da Zambézia asked Serrote what the reason for Morrumbala village headquarters being ambushed might actually have been.

He replied: “You know, Mr Journalist, you journalists are the ones who report the situations that occur in Mozambique, and I believe you are not unaware of what is happening, because all the people follow what occurs through the media and these media organisations are you journalists. What I say is that any situation that happens in terms of provocation, we give the answer”.

When asked if the reasons behind the Morrumbala are similar to those of the

Mopeia attack, Serrote said that: “One thing has nothing to do with another”, adding that calm had been restored to the area.

Source: Diário da Zambézia

Attacks in Mozambique lead to police personnel changes in Morrumbala and Mopeia

A police spokesperson has denied that police district commanders in Morrumbala and Mopeia (Zambézia Province) have been dismissed following successive attacks allegedly perpetrated by Renamo.

In the past month, there have been at least five attacks resulting in fatalities and serious injuries in the Morrumbala and Mopeia districts.

The last two attacks, carried out last week by alleged Renamo gunmen (See Armed men attack Morrumbala - page 59, Rhula Weekly No. 143 and Renamo gunmen occupy police station in Mopeia – page 56, Rhula Weekly No. 142), allegedly resulted in the removal of two district police commanders, according to anonymous sources consulted by Deutsche Welle Africa.

The reason is the slow reaction of the security forces to two attacks reported by local authorities on Friday 12 August.

Alleged Renamo gunmen first attacked Morrumbala village headquarters, then did the same thing in Mopeia in the same province.

Local authorities in Morrumbala say the attackers stormed the district police headquarters, releasing prisoners, and the health centre, which they set on fire.

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During the action, the group set fire to a police car and stole four motorbikes and hospital supplies.

Police deny resignations:

Zambézia Provincial Command spokesperson, Jacinto Felix, says that the two police commanders were not dismissed, but transferred to other duties within Zambézia.

According to Felix, this “is normal police action” as “any public official can be moved to another post or place of work”.

“We must avoid rumours and speculation”, he said.

However, a source in the Mopeia police force told Deutsche Welle that the two district commanders were dismissed after the police took several hours to intervene during the raids on the two villages.

But Felix insists that: “the movement of the two commanders – and all the staff of Zambézia Command” is aimed at “ensuring the safety of citizens in the context of military hostilities”, not only in Mopeia and Morrumbala, but throughout the Zambézia Province.

“Many police were moved”, he emphasised.

Attacks continue:

The Mozambican authorities have accused Renamo of a series of attacks in central and northern Mozambique in recent weeks, both against police and civilian facilities such as health centres, and on economic targets like mining company trains.

The leader of Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama, has admitted responsibility for several attacks, justifying the strategy of dispersing the Defence and Security Forces accused of shelling the mountains of Gorongosa, where he supposedly remains in refuge.

Despite the frequency of political violence, the two parties have resumed dialogue in Maputo with international mediators present.

The first phase of the negotiations has been dominated by Renamo’s demand to govern in the six provinces where it claims electoral victory and the conditions for the ceasefire demanded by the government.

Source: UOL News/Deutsche Welle

Port of Beira making a loss due to Renamo attacks – Sofala government

The Port of Beira (Sofala Province) is feeling the effects of Renamo attacks in various parts of the country, which are resulting in reduced freight traffic to and from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and DR Congo – the port’s main customers.

Speaking at the end of the 70th Ordinary Session of the Sofala government, which reviewed the current security situation in the region, spokesperson Hélcio Canda said that the situation is causing huge economic losses not only for Mozambique but also for other SADC member states.

Attacks are taking place on the EN1 on the Muxungué-Save and Nhamapaza-Caia sections in Sofala Province, and Mopeia-Nicoadala and Mocuba-Nhampevo in Zambézia, and also on

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EN7 between Báruè and Guro in Manica.

The Sofala government says that armed Renamo actions on the Dondo-Cheringoma road are also hindering the free movement of people and goods.

Losses caused by the suspension of coal transport from Moatize in Tete to Beira on the Sena railway line because of attacks on Vale trains are in the order of MT50-million a day.

Canda, the director of Transport and Communications in Sofala, said that the armed incursions were happening just as CFM was investing around €163-million increasing the Sena line capacity from 6.5-million to 20-million tons per year over a distance of 575-kilometres.


Mozambique war victims flock into Zimbabwe

Hundreds of Mozambican war victims have fled their country into Zimbabwe as clashes between government forces and Renamo rebels escalate.

The over 500 refugees are living in an open space in Mabee village, Chisumbanje, eastern Zimbabwe near the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border, without adequate access to food or water.

“We have come to stay here in Zimbabwe as refugees. We are also asking for assistance from those who can help us because we live like animals now”. Rumbidzai Ndlovu said.

“We have run away from war in Mozambique which was brought on by the rebels. The day we fled

Mozambique the rebels came to our township open fire and all the police officers ran away.

So we decided to come to Zimbabwe to seek refuge”, another refugee, Ellias Chingowe added.

Another group of approximately 200 families who arrived in June are living at a different location and were lucky enough to get assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Source: Africa News

Hostilities in Mozambique creating tension on Zimbabwe’s border

A resurgence in hostilities between Mozambican armed forces and Renamo rebels has triggered widespread fear among Zimbabweans living in eastern Manicaland Province that runs along the countries’ common border.

During the 1977-1992 Mozambican Civil War, Zimbabwe hosted tens of thousands of refugees from its eastern neighbour at Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge district.

The fighting also caused much insecurity in eastern Zimbabwe.

Twenty-four years after that war, the insecurity has returned as well as refugees fleeing the conflict back home.

Enock Porusingazi, legislator for Chipinge South, estimates that at least 1,000 Mozambicans have fled into his constituency where some are living with relatives while others have built shacks for themselves.

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“There is a lot of fear in my constituency given the fact that our province is on the border with Mozambique”, he said.

“People are panicking because this is not the first time a conflict in Mozambique has destabilised us. In the 1980s into the early 1990s we had the same problem. The crisis was too bad then because the fighting was intense but you never know how the current fighting will develop”.

He said the forced migration is worsening food insecurity among Zimbabwean villagers, already affected by a drought that, according to the United Nations, has left four-million people hungry nationwide.

“Therefore, authorities should move in quickly with food aid”, said Porusingazi, a ruling party legislator.

“The government, working with its partners must act now because the numbers are increasing daily. At first, it was a family or two arriving, but now the numbers have grown. It is many families. In Chipinge South the number is beyond 1,000 people. This excludes those who have been officially registered at the refugee camp. This tells you that the refugees are a few thousands”.

The Mozambican conflict flared up into an armed confrontation around December 2015, a year after Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, decamped from Maputo to the mountainous Gorongosa (Sofala Province), accusing the Frelimo government of targeting him and electoral rigging.

Peace talks between his rebel movement and the government

resumed on 8 August under international mediators.

In late July, Al Jazeera reported that at least 12,000 Mozambicans asylum seekers had fled to Malawi.

In Zimbabwe, acting Chipinge district administrator in Manicaland, Freeman Mavhiza, was quoted in a state-run weekly on 5 August as saying that the government has registered 712 refugees so far this month, up from 514 recorded in July.

“The number can be more than that”, he said, “because there are some areas where foreigners settling there were not recorded. When these foreigners enter this country they resist being accommodated at the well designate Tongogara Refugee Camp claiming that they have extended families”.

Tongogara Refugee Camp has 9,000 refugees, most of whom are Rwandese, Burundian and Congolese.

But the centre is short of food and medical drugs.

Shuvai Mahofa, regional minister for southern Masvingo Province said: “Our people are feeling insecure because some of our people in Chiredzi South are close to the border. However, we hope the security situation will normalise as soon as possible”.

Source: DefenceWeb

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CRIME

MAP 1: KIDNAPPING INCIDENTS IN CENTRAL MAPUTO 2014 – 2016

GRAPH 2: PUBLIC-MEDIA REPORTED KIDNAPPINGS PER YEAR

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GRAPH 3: TIME OF KIDNAPPINGS 2014 - 2016

GRAPH 4: KIDNAPPINGS PER GENDER / AGE-GROUP 2014 – 2016

*Please note: the data present in the graphs and maps is not 100% accurate owing to the high number of unreported cases and irregularities in the documentation of these events.

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Government pledges to curb misappropriation of funds

The Mozambican Minister of State Administration and Civil Service, Carmelita Namashulua, said that further reforms in public financial management will allow for the detection of misappropriation of funds that costs the State millions of meticais every year.

Minister Namashulua said that recent reports of financial fraud in state finances are the result of the tightening of internal controls, with the introduction of reforms in the civil service financial management systems and greater intervention and co-ordination with the general inspection of finance.

“What we are doing right now is to strengthen the internal control, and everyone who diverts state funds will be held accountable”, the minister said.

The Mozambican State lost more than one US$1.2-million in the first six months of the year through civil service corruption, including misappropriation of funds, leading to the opening of 474 court cases and the detention of 90 citizens.

The diversion was mostly effected by operators of e-SISTAFE, the electronic system the state uses to pay its suppliers, so the strengthening of internal checks is expected to cut fraud substantially. (See Corruption schemes cost the State MT79-million during first half of the year - page 68 Rhula Weekly No. 143).

Recently, in the newly created district of Vanduzi, the local administrator was removed from office for fraudulently

awarding 17 contracts to a single contractor, facilitating the diversion of MT24-million.

Asked about the issue, the minister said that the misappropriation had been discovered and that a court case was now in progress, and that “the employee [would] return the funds that he allegedly extorted”, but failed to address reports of political favours in the case.

“Sometimes in this process, where we have discovered embezzlement, we draw attention and take the necessary measures, such as happened here. Steps are underway”, she said.

Last week all Ministry inspectors gathered for an alignment in the supervision and advice of civil servants in order to comply with public affairs management procedures and eliminate the strategies used to divert funds.

Source: VOA Português

Vanduzi administrator not dismissed over corruption – Manica Governor

On Wednesday 17 August, the governor of Manica Province, Alberto Mondlane, denied that last week’s dismissal of the administrator of Vanduzi district, Sabado Malendza, had anything to do with the alleged theft of MT10-million (approximately US$141,000, at current exchange rates) from public funds, as some of the media had claimed.

In fact, it was Malendza – who was appointed district administrator in mid-2015 – who initiated investigations into major corruption in Vanduzi. Malendza uncovered theft, not of MT10-million, but of MT24-million, supposedly masterminded by the district permanent

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secretary, Lucas Chichingue, and involving five other local officials. When Malendza was relieved of his duties as administrator, reports soon appeared that he too was corrupt.

However, Governor Mondlane declared that anyone who claims that Malendza lost his job because of embezzlement “is totally deceived”. The case of theft of public funds in Vanduzi is now in the hands of the prosecutors and the courts, and has nothing to do with Malendza, he added.

“This is normal procedure in the public administration, where people are relieved of their duties, and are then entrusted with other activities. That’s the case with Sabado Malendza”, said the governor. “He is going to undertake other tasks within the province. I cannot yet announce what he will do, because those with the power to make appointments have not yet sent me the relevant dispatch”.

Governor Mondlane added that Malendza “will go to another sector where he will continue to make his contribution to the growth of the province and of the country. Of this I have no doubt”.

As for those really responsible for the theft of public resources in Vanduzi, Governor Mondlane refused to preempt decisions by the courts. Accused persons “are innocent until proven guilty. It is not worthwhile for the provincial governor to speak of this matter to the press”.

Source: Folha de Maputo/Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique

African bishops fight human and organ trafficking

The International Conference of Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa was held from 3 to 5 August. The event, which focused on human trafficking, was sponsored by the Episcopal Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Displaced Persons of Mozambique, in collaboration with the Southern African Network against Trafficking and Abuse of Children (SANTAC) and the Catholic Agency for Development.

The international conference brought together leaders from the Catholic Church in South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as representatives of government institutions, NGOs and civil society.

According to the Archbishop of Maputo and president of the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique, Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, the meeting was “an opportunity for sharing and exchanging experiences between the various African countries”.

In turn, the president of the Episcopal Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Displaced Persons in Mozambique, Bishop Adriano Langa, said that: “with the civil war, which lasted 16 years, there was a lot of internal and external migration; now we must welcome them [the displaced persons] home again and reintegrate them into society”.

The Episcopal Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Displaced Persons in Mozambique recently conducted a survey in the country, which found that trafficking in organs has increased in Mozambique.

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In turn, the representative of the Catholic Agency for Development, Clare Dixon, urged governments to unite in order to combat trafficking in organs and humans, a phenomenon that has reached alarming dimensions.

Source: Vatican Radio

Intoxicated FIR agents shoot two young men in Beira

On the night of Saturday 13 August, two unidentified young men (aged 18 and 19) were injured when they were shot by FIR agents in the city of Beira (Sofala Province).

According to reports, the armed agents were intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

The incident occurred just outside a local bar. According to eyewitnesses, the agents fired their weapons after arguing with the bar owner over the fact that he wanted to close his establishment for the night.

The bullets hit one of the young passers-by in the leg and the other in the back.

The agents allegedly attempted to flee the area, however, they were restrained by the bar owner and an unspecified number of patrons. The officer that fired his weapon has been detained.

Source: @Verdade

Eighteen robbers arrested in Manica

The PRM recently detained three gangs comprising of a total of 18 members in Gondola (Manica Province).

The three gangs were dedicated to armed robberies, during which they would steal appliances and food before raping their female victims.

The three gangs admitted that their activities stretched into Nhamantanda district (Sofala Province).


Citizen arrested in Nampula found to be in possession of precious stones

On Friday 12 August, the Nampula police arrested a 62-year-old Mozambican citizen (identified as A. Manuel, originally from Gaza Province) at the Nampula International Airport, after he was found to be in possession of 4.3-kilograms of precious stones (predominantly quartz).

According to the PRM, Manuel was arrested while attempting to leave Nampula for Maputo Province, where he currently lives.

Reports suggest that Manuel attempted to bribe the customs officials with an unspecified amount of money. As a result, Manuel will also be charged with attempting to bribe an official.

Source: @Verdade

Woman raped and murdered in Matola

On the morning of Tuesday 16 August, the body of a 45-year-old woman was discovered in the Intaka neighborhood, Matola (Maputo Province). According to initial reports, it is believed that the woman was raped before being killed.

According to reports, the victim’s body was discovered in a bathroom located in

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the same neighbourhood in which the victim lived.

It is believed that the victim was intercepted by a group of unidentified attackers while she was on her way home from work.

Reports suggest that the woman was killed by her attackers in order to

prevent her from reporting them to the police for rape.

Residents of Intaka have complained about the crime rate in the area, where armed gangs engage in robberies, rape and theft.

Source: @Verdade

HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND NGO’S

Japan donates US$5-million to WFP for drought relief – US$2.7-million allocated to Mozambique

The Japanese government has donated US$5-million to help the World Food Programme (WFP) provide food assistance between September and November 2016 to over 300,000 drought-affected people in the four worst affected countries in southern Africa.

Mozambique will receive the largest portion of this donation, with WFP using US$2.7-million for drought relief. In addition, WFP will spend US$1.85-million in Malawi, US$250,000 in Lesotho and US$200,000 in Swaziland.

According to WFP regional director Chris Nikoi, “we deeply appreciate this generous contribution by the Japanese government at a moment when we urgently need to move huge amounts of relief assistance into drought hit areas – especially those which will be cut off when the rainy season starts”.

However, Nikoi lamented that the drought emergency operation has only received 20% of the funding required to assist almost 12-million people across the region until next April.

According to a statement from WFP, Japan’s donation will allow WFP in Mozambique “to address persisting needs and significant funding gaps while supporting community efforts towards recovery, greater resilience and ultimately progress towards Zero Hunger”.

It added, “the drought response in Mozambique includes emergency school feeding to 100,000 children and treatment of moderate acute malnutrition to 51,000 children and pregnant and nursing women”.

The drought is mainly due to the strongest El Niño weather event to hit southern Africa in 35 years. El Niño is characterised by an abnormal warming of the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean and has a significant effect on weather around the world. The term was first used at the end of the 19th century to describe a warm current off the coast of Peru at Christmas.

In Mozambique, El Niño is linked to the failure of rains during what is usually the wettest period – January to March. It has been blamed for the drastic food shortages in much of southern and central Mozambique in 2002 and for the

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severe drought which devastated the country in 1992. According to the relief agency CARE, nearly two-million people in Mozambique are currently in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

At the end of July, the SADC declared a regional disaster and launched an appeal for US$2.4-billion to assist the millions of people hit by drought.

The appeal was launched in Gaborone by SADC Chairperson, President Ian Khama of Botswana, in the presence of representatives of SADC member states, the United Nations, humanitarian organisations, and international aid partners.

President Khama detailed the size of the problem: “the 2016 regional food security and vulnerability assessments indicate that the number of food insecure people in the region is about 40-million, which is about 14% of SADC’s total population”.

Of this number, an estimated 23-million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

2016 was the second year in a row that the region has suffered from drought, and President Khama noted that the region was “largely able to cope with the drought in 2014-15 through its own means”. However, he stated that the severity of the drought of 2015-16 had overwhelmed the disaster preparedness capacity in most of the affected countries.

The SADC appeal aims to address immediate humanitarian needs as well as long-term developmental and resilience-building requirements.

In response to the appeal, the United States pledged US$300-million, whilst the United Kingdom and the European Union pledged £72-million and €60-million respectively.

Six SADC states have declared national drought emergencies – Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In addition, South Africa has declared an emergency in eight of its nine provinces.

In April, Mozambique declared a 90-day institutional red alert, the highest state of disaster alert, in the southern and central provinces. Data for the 2015-16 agricultural campaign show a harvest of 2.39-million tons of grain – a decline of 4.8% on the 2015 harvest of 2.51-million tons. The poor harvest was mainly due to the drought, although storms and flooding in the north of the country also contributed to crop losses.


Mozambique prepares to harvest rainwater after a severe drought

Residents of Tingonhamen, a community in Mozambique’s southern region, are digging out soil to create a water reservoir in the hope that the long awaited rainy season will mean that they can store some water.

A prolonged drought, which started in March 2015, has scorched Mozambique and parts of southern Africa, wiping out livestock and pushing up food prices, affecting the livelihood of millions of Africans.

“This is an example of the impact of drought on the community, not only in terms of access to water but also the

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quality of water. So this community is digging a reservoir in anticipation that there will be some rain and they can collect and store some water”, said Tito Bonde, an emergency and disaster risk reduction specialist at UNICEF. Schools in Tingonhamen are working with the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, to have trucks deliver water to institutions in the meantime.

“With more resources then we’ll be not only able to provide water trucking, but to do deep borehole drilling or multi-functional water systems that can also provide water for household use but also for the livestock so they can have access to water”, said Bonde.

The drought has hit much of the southern African region including the maize belt in South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy and the top producer of the staple grain.

In South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe, last year’s poor rains were followed by an El Niño-driven drought that has delayed planting and stunted crops. An estimated 31.6-million people across the region are struggling to feed themselves, the Red Cross has said.

The United Nations’ food agency FAO, said last month that it needed US$730-million over the next 12 months for relief in seven southern African countries including Mozambique.

The arrival of La Niña, a weather pattern, expected later this year, which usually brings floods to southern Africa could worsen the situation, the UN has said.

Source: Africa News

Warning of 579,000 severely malnourished children the latest wake-up call on southern Africa

A new report revealing that 579,000 children across southern Africa will require treatment for severe acute malnutrition in 2016 is the latest wake-up call for the world to work together to prevent this crisis from destroying the lives and future of a generation.

According to UN OCHA’s most recent global overview on the impact of El Niño, an estimated 40-million people across southern Africa are currently affected by the El-Niño-induced drought, including 23-million who require urgent humanitarian assistance.

Lorraine Mangwiro, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) head of the southern Africa country cluster, said the impact of chronic hunger and severe acute malnutrition in the region is destroying lives and livelihoods today, and threatening social and economic development in the future.

“We know that when families cannot feed themselves, they become desperate. Children stop attending school to find work in exchange for food, or they are simply too hungry to go”, said Mangwiro.

As well as the horrifying effects of hunger on children, acute malnutrition can cause lasting, intergenerational damage through reduced school attendance, and reduced access to essential healthcare and medical treatments.

Basic malnutrition treatments for children and supporting broader health,

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food, sanitation and livelihood programmes are urgently needed now – and to build community resilience for droughts in the future.

IFRC is supporting National Red Cross Societies across southern Africa to respond to the crisis through emergency appeals launched in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Totalling more than CHF12.1-million, the appeals are providing immediate life-saving support to more than 94,000 people. The appeals are, on average, just 31% funded.

“We are focusing our response to this slow onset emergency on those who are most in need – particularly children”, said Mangwiro. “Children are the future leaders, workers and parents of this region. If we act now, they can still have a healthy and productive future”.

Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Mission visits Dam Rehabilitation Project expected to provide water to 17,000 people in Mozambique

On 3 August the AfDB’s Resident Representative in Mozambique, Joseph Ribeiro, and various members of the diplomatic community visited the Massingir Dam Project in Gaza Province, in the country’s southern region. The visit sought to illustrate development work being jointly undertaken by the bank and the government of Mozambique.

The mission included Frank E. Viyazhi, High Commissioner of Malawi; and Olebile M. Gaborone, High Commissioner of Botswana; Marcia de Castro, UN Resident Coordinator; and

Bettina Maas, UNFPA Country Manager. The members described the trip as an eye-opening experience, which enabled them to link the size of the dam, which is the second largest in Mozambique, with the expected economic impact on the ground.

Upon completion of the ongoing rehabilitation works by mid-2017, the dam will be able to contribute significantly to three of the bank’s High 5s: “Light up and Power Africa” through a capacity to produce 27.4MW of hydroelectric power; “Feed Africa” through irrigation of 90,000-hectares of land; and “Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa” through provision of drinking water to 17,000 people in Massingir district.

The mission was pleased with the quality and progress of work that the bank is financing, in particular observing the construction of auxiliary spillway to safe proof the dam against large floods, and the rehabilitation of bottom outlets, which will allow for year-round irrigation downstream of the dam.

Source: African Development Bank Group

More than 2,000 people displaced by drought and military crisis

According to the National Institute of Disaster Management (Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades, INGC), approximately 2,372 people have been displaced due to the politico-military situation and drought in central Mozambique. The displaced persons have sought refuge in three accommodation centres in the districts of Gondola, Báruè and Mussurize (Manica Province).

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The Mussurize accommodation centre houses the largest number of displaced people, totalling 1,611, followed by Báruè, with 646, and Gondola, with 115.

“We are counting on the support of our partners for the assistance of these people”, said the Director of Prevention and Mitigation of INGC, Ana Cristina, noting that it is difficult to distinguish between people seeking help because of the drought and those fleeing military confrontations.

Source: Notícias Ao Minuto

Human Rights League launches report on Mozambican refugees in Malawi – 4,000 remain in the camps

The number of Mozambican refugees in Malawi has declined substantially in recent months, but there are still over 4,000 refugees living in two camps in Malawi, according to a report from the Mozambican Human Rights League (LDH), presented at a public meeting in Maputo on Thursday 18 August.

The LDH sent researchers to the two camps (Kapise and Luwani), and visited the Mozambican districts from which the refugees had fled (Moatize and Angonia in Tete Province, and Mocuba, Morrumbala and Milange in Zambézia).

The inflow of refugees, the LDH said, began in December 2015, when 6,000 Mozambicans crossed the border. The number of refugees reached its peak in May this year, when there were 11,500 Mozambicans in the camps. But by July the number had fallen to 4,438. Of these refugees, 49% were men and 51% were women.

All the refugees interviewed by the LDH, whether from Tete or from Zambézia, said they were fleeing from the armed conflict between government forces and the rebel movement Renamo. Most of the interviewees blamed the Defence and Security Forces.

The LDH says there were reports of 13 people (eight in Tete and five in Zambézia) who were summarily executed by the government forces, because they were believed to be members or supporters of Renamo.

Many of the interviewees accused the defence forces of burning and vandalising houses and barns. There were also reports of rapes, but the LDH researchers were unable to confirm these.

The LDH also identified three people murdered by Renamo. The rebels had accused these victims of working for the government or for the ruling Frelimo Party.

The LDH team found a house in Samoa locality (Tete Province) which had been burnt down by Renamo, and where the locality secretary and his assistant were gunned down in cold blood.

The LDH report also criticises the government for its slow response to the crisis, and for its lack of co-ordination, leading to contradictory public declarations from officials.

It claims there was an attempt by some officials at forcing refugees to return, which was a violation of the international protocols signed by Mozambique.

The main conclusion reached by the LDH is that the government and

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Renamo should “make efforts to achieve an effective and sustainable peace as the path to ending this situation of a silent war, the abuse of human rights and the refugee crisis”.

According to Lusa, the president of the LDH accused the government and Renamo of committing war crimes, calling for the intervention of the International Criminal Court.

It urged the government to produce an “exhaustive report” on the refugee situation, and to take “disciplinary, administrative and criminal measures against those responsible for abusing human rights”.

In particular, it wanted the government to investigate the summary executions reported by refugees and to punish those who had committed these crimes.

Speaking at the meeting, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Commission on Legal and Constitutional Matters and Human Rights, Frelimo deputy Edson Macuácua, praised civil society and the LDH in particular for the work undertaken.

He said the proposals made by the LDH will be taken into consideration by his commission.

Macuácua regarded the LDH report as an excellent basis for work, of very important legal value.

“The report criticises the behaviour of some bodies, and we shall analyse this”, he promised. “The criticisms are welcome – not only do they help us reflect, but also to correct what is not good and to improve our work”.

For his part, Lutero Simango, head of the parliamentary group of the MDM, said the current situation results from “the lack of political inclusion, and the lack of national reconciliation”. Simango said the MDM urges those who resort to military means to disarm.

Source: Agencia de Informacao de Moçambique/Lusa

UN expert to assess human rights of people with albinism in Mozambique

United Nations Independent Expert Ikponwosa Ero will carry out her first visit to Mozambique from 21 August to 3 September to evaluate the situation of human rights of persons with albinism in the country.

“There has been a recent wave of attacks on persons with albinism in some provinces in Mozambique to which the government has reacted by arresting and prosecuting alleged perpetrators in the framework of the multi-sectorial plan adopted in 2015 to ensure the protection of lives and physical integrity of persons with albinism”, Ero noted.

“I will meet with the Committee in charge of this plan, as well as with other actors from government, civil society and international partners in order to identify current challenges, gaps in the current response, and best practices that could be transferred from elsewhere in the region”, she said.

During her two-week visit, the human rights expert will travel to Maputo, Nampula and Beira. She will meet with representatives of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, local and provincial authorities, the

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Mozambican Human Rights Commission, civil society organisations, including those of persons with albinism, and members of the diplomatic community.

“I look forward to meeting persons with albinism in Mozambique”, the expert added, “as I give particular importance to their direct experience and also uphold the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’”.

At the end of her visit, Ero will share with the media her preliminary observations at a press conference which will be held at 9:30hrs at the UNDP premises in Maputo, Kenneth Kaunda Av, N. 931. Access to the press conference is strictly limited to journalists.

The Independent Expert will present a comprehensive report on her visit to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2017.

Source: The Nigerian Voice/www.ohchr.org

Economic consequences of child marriage in Mozambique, and what it will take to end the tradition

Elisa (not her real name) was 17 when she found out that she was pregnant. Soon after, she married and moved into her mother-in-law’s home.

In addition to taking care of a new baby, she had a long list of duties from cooking meals for the household to performing all the chores.

“When I was living there, I could not go to school”, she said. “Nobody else had to do anything. I was a domestic servant”.

Now 19 and the mother of a toddler, Elisa learns vocational skills and attends classes in sexual reproduction at Horizonte Azul, a community-based organisation geared towards protecting young girls and women in Mozambique through education and economic empowerment.

The focus is to keep girls busy because if they are free, they “may get into nonsense” – like pregnancy, said Rita Jacinto, a mentor at the organisation.

Pregnancy is a legitimate fear in Mozambique, where 48% of women married by age 18. Mozambique has the 10th highest child marriage rate in the world.

Mozambique recently joined Egypt, Zambia and Ethiopia as a growing number of governments develop national strategies or campaigns to end child marriage.

In April 2016, Mozambique launched a strategy to prevent and eliminate child marriage by 2019. The strategy illustrates a national commitment, but budgeting and monitoring is key.

Almost simultaneously, the IMF revealed a US$2-billion debt that the government of Mozambique had kept hidden from the National Assembly.

“The first thing that the government needs to do is come up with a budget”, said Persilia Muianga, a senior manager and member of US charity World Vision Child Protection. “Until then, it will just be a strategy on paper”.

Outside of finances, the multi-layered issue of combating child marriage in Mozambique faces conflict between

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constitutional law, culture traditions, poverty and religion.

While the country’s family law does prohibit the marriage of persons under the age of 18, there are exceptions, such as when parental consent is given for children age 16 to marry.

“The parliament is interested in eliminating the family law completely”, said Speaker of House Verónica Macamo. “But these things exist due to culture and tradition. It is often parents and religious leaders who consent these things, so parliament needs to ensure that all stakeholders and involved parties are included in decision making so that there will be no clashes in the future”.

On 3 June, Mozambique also approved the SADC Model Law on Eradicating Child Marriage and Protecting Children Already in Marriage. This law aims to raise the legal age of marriage to 18. SADC will co-ordinate laws and policies to address child marriage across southern Africa.

But even with laws in place to protect Mozambican girls, cultural and traditional practices are hard to break. In the central and northern regions of the country especially, long-held customs of female initiations mark her entry into womanhood.

Initiations happen in three phases, with the first phase beginning around the time of a girl’s first menstruation, age 10. Girls are taught hygiene, behavioural decorum and lessons on sexual life and marriage. Female elders teach girls as young as nine how to satisfy their husbands sexually, according to Muianga.

“Some faith organisations believe that a child that has seen her first menstruation and gone through initiation is ready to be married”, said Albino Mussuei, secretary general of the Council of Religious Leaders in Mozambique.

Child marriage has negative implications not only for young girls, but a nation.

When a young girl becomes a bride, the opportunities for education and better-paid work decrease. She is more likely to experience early and frequent pregnancies and becomes more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases.

Approximately 15-million girls are married every year before they reach 18 years, according to UNICEF. The practice is most common in the world’s poorest countries and communities.

Families often see the union as a way to provide for the daughter with the incentive of bride prices and one less mouth to feed once a woman transitions into her married home.

But girls who marry young are more likely to be poor and remain poor, according to the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW).

Economic consequences of child marriage in Mozambique:

Increased population, decreased education and lower female women wage earnings negatively impact a country’s GDP, according to a three-year research project between the World Bank and ICRW.

In Niger, for example, eliminating child marriage between 2014 and 2030 could

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translate to benefits valued at more than US$25-billion.

“It is a waste when half the population is not contributing to the prosperity of a country”, said Mabel van Oranje, chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of Girls Not Brides, during a visit to Maputo in June.

The UK-based organisation works to bring child marriage to global attention, and build an understanding of what it will take to end child marriage. It calls for policies and programmes to be put in place.

“To end child marriage, there must be a multi-sectorial, co-ordinated approach involving all key stakeholders including ministries, civil society organisations, donors, religious and traditional leaders, youth activists and girls themselves”, van Oranje said.

As for Elisa, she said girls need to invest in education over anything else.

“I have plans for my daughter”, she said. “I want to protect and provide for her and keep her in school. One day maybe she can get married to someone nice”.

Source: AFKInsider

WILDLIFE AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Growing number of lions slaughtered for traditional rituals in Mozambique

A growing number of lions are being killed in Mozambique for the body parts necessary for traditional rituals, mainly in Asia.

Rui Branco, a veterinarian in the Gorongosa National Park (Sofala Province), told Rádio Moçambique that the reserve had lost six lions in the last two years.

Speaking on Wednesday 10 August, on the occasion of the World Day of the Lion, Branco said that the demand for nails, teeth and bones for traditional rituals in China, were putting lions in danger of extinction.

Source: Rádio Moçambique

Chinese man arrested with ZAR1.5-million in rhino horns

On Thursday 18 August, the Hawks arrested a Chinese national at O.R Tambo International Airport (South Africa) who was found to be in possession of 10 rhino horns, 84 stick ornaments made out of rhino horn and 41 bangles with an estimated value of ZAR1.5-million.

The 48-year-old suspect was about to board a flight to Hong Kong when he was nabbed. The suspect claimed to have acquired the rhino horns from Maputo (Mozambique). He will face charges of trafficking in rhino horns when he appears at the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court on Monday 15 August.

Source: All Africa/South African Police Service (Pretoria)

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Sustainable utilisation of wildlife not so sustainable

A comprehensive new review of the threats facing global biodiversity indicates that a popular approach to saving the planet’s wild animals from extinction may be fatally flawed.

‘Sustainable utilisation’ is a catch phrase that is as fashionable in wildlife conservation circles as it is controversial. In essence, it suggests that natural resources – in this instance, wild animals – can be ‘harvested’ in a way that will not endanger the continued survival of the species in question.

Furthermore, proponents argue that this form of commercial exploitation is a legitimate (some would say the only) way to raise the money required to fund conservation measures.

This philosophy of sustainable utilisation is central to the South African government’s wildlife conservation policy. It underpins claims by the hunting fraternity that killing animals for sport contributes to their conservation, and it forms the basis for arguments that legalising the international trade in products such as elephant ivory and rhino horns will reduce poaching.

New research shows that the belief that humans are capable of using wild animals in this fashion without ultimately causing their demise may be misplaced. In the article, published in the prestigious journal Nature, a group of conservation scientists assess the factors that are driving wild species towards extinction. They identify overexploitation, including hunting, as the biggest threat.

The authors analysed the threat information for 8,688 ‘threatened’ and ‘near-threatened’ species contained in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

They found that climate change, pollution, invasive species, urbanisation and agricultural activities present some of the most serious dangers to these species.

The single biggest threat, however, is overexploitation, defined as “the harvesting of species from the wild at rates that cannot be compensated for by reproduction or regrowth”. It affects 6,241 of the species considered.

After logging (the survey includes both plants and animals), the researchers show that hunting is the second most perilous subset of threat factors within the category of overexploitation.

Hunting impacts detrimentally on 1,680 species. That’s almost exactly the same number of species as are affected by global climate change.

Pointing out that the threats to endangered species are likely to remain as populations grow and human development continues at full pace, the authors of the paper warn that: “of all the plant, amphibian, reptile, bird and mammal species that have gone extinct since AD1500, 75% were harmed by overexploitation or agricultural activity or both”.

According to one of the authors, Sean Maxwell of the University of Queensland in Australia, addressing these two major threat factors “must be at the forefront of the conservation agenda”, this being

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“key to turning around the biodiversity extinction crisis”.

As the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) in Johannesburg (South Africa) draws near, these new findings should inform the critical debate around a joint proposal to legalise the trade in ivory submitted to the meeting by South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

In direct opposition to the 29 Central, West and East African nations that make up the core of the African Elephant Coalition, the three Southern African countries want to be allowed to sell ivory from their national stockpiles on a legalised international market. Citing the need to raise capital for conservation measures and poverty relief, they assert their right to sustainably utilise their wild animal resources.

But the new findings identifying overexploitation as the most serious threat to thousands of species cast serious doubt on the validity and wisdom of this approach.

And the Nature article isn’t the only recent document that should give us pause when considering so-called sustainable utilisation as an effective conservation philosophy. In July a large group of international scientists, including representatives from South Africa, came together to pen a declaration to save the world’s terrestrial megafauna.

This is especially relevant to the current debate since sub-Saharan Africa has the planet’s greatest diversity in

megafauna, from elephants, gorillas and large cats, to hippos, rhinos, giraffes, buffalos and more.

Noting that 59% of the world’s largest carnivores and 60% of its largest herbivores are now classified as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List, the authors of the declaration highlight the fact that among other factors, “the current depletion of megafauna is also due to overhunting and persecution: shooting, snaring, and poisoning by humans ranging from individuals to governments, as well as by organised criminals and terrorists”.

They warn that: “under a business-as-usual scenario, conservation scientists will soon be busy writing obituaries for species and subspecies of megafauna as they vanish from the planet. In fact, this process is already underway…”

In the face of growing evidence from researchers working in the field that overexploitation represents the preeminent threat to the survival of many endangered species of wildlife, proposals for sustainable utilisation need to be examined with extreme care.

By turning wild creatures into commodities, financial incentives reinforced by market mechanisms are at risk of undermining the conservation prerogative that should form the foundation of this discussion.

Proponents of so-called sustainable utilisation in wildlife conservation often argue that wild animals have to “start paying for themselves” – an attitude that their critics find uncomfortably close to the dictum, “if it pays, it stays”. The latter are particularly concerned about what happens “if it doesn’t pay”, wondering

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whether wild animals don’t, in fact, have an intrinsic right to inhabit their indigenous habitats without the risk of being sustainably exploited to extinction for the benefit of humans.

Given the fact that our overexploitation of wildlife has been identified as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, causes of the current crisis in which many species may not make it to the end of this century, it is high time that we join the authors of the declaration to save the world’s terrestrial megafauna by stating that we “affirm an abiding moral obligation to protect the Earth’s megafauna” along with all other threatened plant and animal species.

Source: Africa Geographic/Conservation Action Trust

African countries square up for battle over future of ivory trade ban

Three countries in southern Africa have banded together to push for the ban on the international trade in ivory to be lifted. South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe have submitted a joint proposal to CITES. They are asking for permission to trade in ivory without which, they argue, there are no positive incentives to conserve elephants or their habitats.

CITES is an international agreement between governments that aims to ensure that the trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten species’ survival. The next CoP17 in September will include debates about what levels of protection should be given to each species. One of the hottest topics will be the international ban on the trade of ivory, which was introduced in 1989.

The joint position of these southern African nations stands in direct opposition to the majority of African leaders who are deeply worried about the steep decline in elephant numbers. They recently formed the African Elephant Coalition.

The coalition, made up of 29 African countries, has put forward five proposals aimed at reversing the endemic poaching of African elephants. The thrust of their proposals is to end the ivory trade altogether.

Elephant numbers across the continent fell precipitously between 2006 and 2013. There are now only 400,000 left. Losses in West, Central and East Africa have been immense, numbering upwards of 100,000 between 2011 and 2013.

The upcoming conference is set to be a firecracker political drama, given the conflicting proposals of the coalition and the southern Africa breakaway group.

Conflicting proposals:

Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe want an existing conference resolution to be amended to allow the international trade in raw ivory for commercial purposes to resume. The amendment suggests this decision should be authorised by the Standing Committee if certain criteria are met by the respective exporting and importing states.

In a more radical move, Namibia and Zimbabwe have also proposed that their elephants be removed from CITES protection listings altogether. If approved by the convention this would allow them to trade ivory by open auction. This is an unlikely outcome, as

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it requires a 66% majority. The other alternative is that the two countries elect to leave CITES.

Whatever the outcome, the actual tabling of these proposals runs the risk of sending the wrong signal to the ivory market: that trade may again be legitimate. This could undermine any stigma attached to the purchase of ivory.

The African Elephant Coalition’s proposals point in exactly the opposite direction. It wants all elephants to be listed on Appendix I. This would allow no possibility of trade in naturally accruing ivory (from natural death) and avoid the split-listing problem. Split-listing is where, for instance, Namibian elephants are on Appendix II but Zambian elephants are on Appendix I.

An Appendix II listing offers a lower degree of protection, and trade may occur under very specific conditions to which all parties must agree.

Placing all elephants on the same list would accomplish two important goals.

It would solve the collective action problem that exists between southern African nations and their northern neighbours. The southern nations want to benefit monetarily from having well-managed elephant populations, while their northern neighbours almost uniformly desire Appendix I listing.

It would avoid sending mixed signals to consumer markets where there is confusion over what African elephant range states actually want – trade or no trade?

But critics argue that the African Elephant Coalition’s proposal for uniform listing is strategically misplaced. The probability of all range states acceding is close to zero and it will divert attention away from other more important objectives.

The coalition also calls for the closure of domestic ivory markets. This is only logical. An international ban has been in place since 1989, but once illicit ivory has made its way through porous borders into legal domestic markets it is basically undetectable. Two once-off sales have been permitted by CITES since then – one in 1999 and one in 2008.

While attributing causality is a tricky business, Nitin Sekar and Solomon Hsiang argue in a recent paper that the most recent sale coincided with an abrupt 66% increase in illegal ivory harvesting. The debate over the effect of these legalised sales is far from being resolved, but the close intertwining of the legal and illegal markets indicates that it has been risky at best.

Global domestic trade bans would simplify law enforcement. Officials would no longer have to incur the costs of trying to distinguish between legal and illegal ivory. Domestic bans would also reduce the hoarding of ivory in anticipation of future trade.

In June the US implemented a rule that effectively bans their domestic ivory trade. China – the world’s largest consumer market – is also about to make its ivory market history.

To fortify the credibility of demand reduction campaigns, the African Elephant Coalition calls for existing

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stockpiles to be destroyed. Game theoretic analysis shows this is necessary in case consumers see stockpiles in range states as being for the purpose of a future trade.

Perhaps most importantly, the coalition proposal recommends that the conference should end negotiations on a “decision-making mechanism for a process of trade in ivory”. This is a direct refutation of the South African, Namibian and Zimbabwean proposal.

The effect of a ban on trade:

Will legalising the trade in ivory stop poaching? Unlikely, argue some.

Pro-trade arguments tend to assume that legal supply would be provided to market at sufficient cost-competitiveness to crowd out illegal suppliers. But poaching syndicates have minimal capital and operational cost requirements in comparison with law enforcement agencies, which would be tasked with managing a legal trade.

It is unclear whether legalised trade mechanisms would be able to compete with poaching syndicates. This would create the problem of an illegal trade continuing in parallel with a legal trade, doing little to stem poaching.

More than that, pro-trade arguments tend to treat ivory as sufficiently renewable to satisfy demand. This is unreasonable. There just isn’t sufficient data to establish the validity of the assumption. The major risk is that if stockpiled ivory was released onto the market at scale, failed to reduce the price, but inadvertently triggered dormant demand, the price would

actually rise. This would exacerbate rather than ameliorate poaching.

In light of this compelling scientific analysis, and the international community’s trajectory towards a “total ban, total burn” world, it makes sense for all nations to get behind this momentum.

But the conference increasingly looks as though it will be a fight between the African Elephant Coalition and the coalition of three – South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. But if the three countries get their way, expected revenues would be unlikely to materialise, as it is unclear to whom they would sell. In addition, they would find themselves isolated from fellow African states.

Source: The Conversation/Conservation Action Trust

World Elephant Day sees worldwide call to burn ivory stockpiles

Hard to imagine that currently fewer than half a million elephants are left in Africa. This is the reality World Elephant Day, held annually on 12 August, aims to highlight.

In Cape Town on Friday afternoon, a small group of individuals joined the Conservation Action Trust to watch flames engulf a pile of tusks fashioned by local wire-workers.

While the small gathering might seem insignificant it does highlight the massive need for South Africans to be made more aware of the massive scale of destruction of these gentle giants through poaching.

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“We cannot stand idly by and watch these magnificent animals be consigned to oblivion”, said Francis Garrard of the Conservation Action Trust, which organised the event.

This mock burn formed part of a worldwide call for all ivory stockpiles to be destroyed and follows the destruction of ivory stockpiles by 25 nations.

This year, World Elephant Day is a lead-up to the CoP17 taking place in Johannesburg in September. The debate over what to do with stockpiled ivory is already creating a sharp divide between those who favour the destruction of the stockpiles and others who believe they represent valuable financial assets.

The South African government refuses to destroy its stockpile, unlike the 25 other countries that have publicly destroyed tons of ivory to highlight that it should not be traded, believing the sale of its stockpile would contribute valuable funds to the conservation of the species.

But this train of thought is said to be a Catch-22 as a 2008 sale of ivory is believed to have fuelled the market to such an extent that it believes it stimulates the illegal production of ivory goods.

In the first ever World Wildlife Report published by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in June 2016 the organisation said: “It appears a large share of the illegally acquired wildlife is ultimately sold in a legal market. By introducing illegal products into licit markets, traffickers have access to a much broader pool of potential buyers”.

Furthermore, the National Bureau of Economic Research published a paper in June 2016 titled: Does Legalisation Reduce Black Market Activity? Evidence from a Global Ivory Experiment and Elephant Poaching Data.

The conclusions of the research are clear.

“We find that a singular legal ivory sale corresponds with an abrupt, significant, permanent, robust, and geographically widespread increase in the production of illegal ivory through elephant poaching, with a corresponding 2009 increase in seizure of raw ivory contraband leaving African countries. The sudden 2008 increase in poaching does not correspond with any abrupt and systemic change in China’s or Japan’s affluence of influence in elephant range states, as measured by numerous covariates”.

As a result, the move by Zimbabwe and Namibia, South Africa in having submitted proposals to CoP17 that would clear the way to re-opening the international trade in ivory and allow them to apply for permission to legally sell ivory from their stockpiles in 2017 is being heavily criticised.

Citing concerns over the “negative consequences” of banning trade, South Africa’s CITES representative, Thea Carroll, claimed earlier this year that “destroying ivory will increase its scarcity and thus drive up prices, which, in turn, will encourage more poaching and illegal trade”.

In stark contrast, the African Elephant Coalition, a group of 29 Central, West and East African nations has submitted

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five proposals to CoP17 which, if accepted, would close all domestic ivory markets, prohibit the export of live elephants, list all African elephant populations in CITES Appendix I and end discussions on re-establishing a legal international trade in ivory. It also endorsed the destruction of existing stockpiles.

Since the first ever public destruction of stockpiled ivory took place in Kenya in 1989, 29 such events have been conducted in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. In April, Kenya burned over 100-tons of ivory in the largest single destruction event yet.

According to Kenyan conservationist Paula Kahumbu, burning ivory “is a highly visible political statement of intent. As such, it can make an important contribution towards raising awareness of the issues, stigmatising the purchase of ivory and galvanising global support for a total trade ban”.

Ultimately, the spectacle of destroying ivory in public sends a clear message to would-be consumers that buying ivory is morally unacceptable and contributes directly to the slaughter of African elephants, over 100,000 of which were killed by poachers between 2010 and 2012 alone.

Source: Traveller24/Conservation Action Trust

WWF ignores history at elephants’ peril

A few days before World Elephant Day on 12 August, the WWF came out in opposition to a global ivory ban proposed for next month’s important CITES meeting which is supported by

29 African states representing 70% of the African elephant range.

This is unsurprising because WWF supported the sale of 108-tons of ivory to China and Japan in 2008 which kick-started the killing of over 200,000 elephants. This poaching crisis also caused the deaths of hundreds of rangers and poachers and fuelled corruption with blood ivory money.

Now WWF is calling on the EU to oppose the global ivory ban proposal which, represented by the UK, also approved the fateful 2008 ivory sale. The EU’s 28 votes would be likely to swing the result.

This is not the first elephant disaster in recent history. In the 1980s it was as cruel and deadly as the one being experienced across Africa today. It was the first attempt by the international community to control the ivory trade. Instead of curtailing it, the measures employed provided documentation and systems which allowed traders to smuggle and launder vast quantities of poached ivory within it.

Hundreds of thousands of elephants died. This was the ivory-funded birth of the international criminal wildlife trade networks still operating across Africa.

I (Dave Currey) worked undercover exposing the ivory trade in the 1980s and 1990s and learned the trade’s secrets and scams used to circumvent and benefit from many of the regulations put in front of them. The findings were widely publicised on television, in newspapers, in EIA reports and in a book. They were no longer a secret.

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Yet it troubles me that CITES ignored the warnings that many of these techniques would be repeated if they allowed the ivory sale to China and Japan in 2008. This is why most African elephant countries and most conservationists strongly opposed it.

So why did WWF support that sale and why do they now oppose a global ivory ban backed by at least 29 African countries representing 70% of the African elephant’s range? Their idea was that China had good controls in place and the “legal” ivory would swamp the market and prices would drop, reducing poaching. At least that’s what they said in 2008. CITES listened to WWF, as did the UK and others that supported the disastrous decision.

After China received its “legal” stockpile of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe it withheld the stock, dribbling it onto the market. This pushed prices up 650% and poaching shot up in Africa. History had already provided the precedent when CITES “legalised” a 270-ton stockpile in Singapore in 1986. The owners of the ivory withheld stock, prices doubled and poaching increased in Africa.

One reason given in WWF’s Colman O’Criodain’s piece in the Guardian for their opposition to a global ivory ban is to prevent an African split at CITES. That might sound sensible except that the split between a few southern African countries and most of the rest of the African elephants’ range countries has existed for years.

The damage ivory trade has caused is so widespread that the anger against Namibia and Zimbabwe’s current

proposals for renewed ivory trade is justified and needs venting.

The crux of WWF’s argument is that discussions around banning the global ivory trade will detract from the important decisions on CITES National Ivory Action Plans (NIAPs), which WWF’s O’Criodain claims are “beginning to yield results”.

It is true that in some of the 19 countries with NIAPs there has been some encouraging reduction in domestic ivory sales. However, there is no real evidence this has affected poaching levels. Far more important have been the USA ban and China and Hong Kong’s statement they will ban domestic ivory soon.

Many NIAPs require the country to “register” its ivory, a process which has been used since 1986 registered stockpiles in Singapore and Burundi. It is important ivory stocks are known and, where possible, useful enforcement information is gathered such as ownership, origin and trade routes. But stockpiles are also a security risk, with ivory leaking into the trade. Destruction is the best option.

In the case of Thailand, the registration of 220-tons of “domestic” ivory under its NIAP is of major concern. Given this ivory is supposed to come from domestic Thai elephants, the quantity is simply unbelievable. It is claimed to be owned by a staggering 44,000 people and is reported to be already in trade.

In the 1980s it was always important for criminal ivory traders to be able to use different regulations in different countries to their advantage. As it became less easy to move ivory through

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some countries, others were always developed. Hong Kong, the world’s biggest ivory laundry for decades has recently stated it will end its domestic ivory market, although to date there has been little action. If traditional ivory laundries such as Hong Kong close down the trade will always be developing new ones. This massive NIAP legalised stockpile in Thailand provides one such opportunity.

WWF’s reluctance to discuss a global ivory ban has much more to do with their dogmatic stance that elephants have to be financially valuable to survive. However, their support of the ivory sale in 2008 raised only US$15-million and has led to the deaths of over 200,000 elephants so far, hundreds of human tragedies and far-reaching economic consequences for countries fighting the criminal networks.

The damage throughout Africa hugely outweighs any income gained by Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. In fact, it might be reasonable to expect some recompense.

It has been shown repeatedly that the public perception of future legal ivory on the market is an important factor confusing consumers and it is a message the proponents of ivory trade work hard to keep alive.

WWF’s O’Criodain’s article does nothing to counter such a perception when he states “… not the time to contemplate even a partial resumption in the trade” – so there it is – WWF believes there will be a time. Hence their opposition to a global ivory ban.

Regarding the NIAP discussions, it seems reasonable and more effective to

pursue the global ivory ban at the same time as tightening the NIAPs. This strategy would be far easier with WWF’s support.

History also tells us WWF’s position in the 1980s was a major obstacle to gaining the 1989 international ivory ban. Only after the ban did poaching decrease across much of the African elephant range, giving many countries an opportunity to spend their precious resources on innovative conservation programmes instead of militarised anti-poaching.

WWF’s ivory control experiments have tragically proven to be a total failure. It’s time they started learning from history. The ivory trade has always been far better at this bloody game than WWF’s career scientists, statisticians and lawyers.

As the WWF publicity machine spews out World Elephant Day messages to further build their multi-national presence, there can be only one response to this near US$1-billion organisation.

It’s the ivory trade that has to be killed off once and for all, not the elephants.

Source: Dave Currey/Conservation Action Trust

If Japan is slow to ban ivory trade, online shops are even slower

Elephant ivory has long been used worldwide to make a host of items from jewellery, piano keys and billiard balls to art and personal seals.

Japan, which used ivory to make hanko (personal seals), was one of the biggest importers in the 1970s and 1980s.They

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brought approximately 950-tons annually in 1983 and 1984. But as the African elephant population plunged, international trade was banned in 1990, leaving room only for domestic trade.

Despite the international trade ban, however, illegal trade continues and poaching is rampant, leaving African elephants on the red list of vulnerable species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

According to a report by CITES, roughly 100,000 elephants were killed in the three years from 2010, prompting the United States and China to close down their domestic ivory markets.

As the next CITES conference in September nears, pressure is mounting for Japan to close down its market as well.

When did ivory start coming to Japan?

Lawyer Masayuki Sakamoto, an executive director at the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund, said it is believed ivory started being brought to Japan in the Genroku Era (1688-1704) during the Tokugawa shogunate.

“Japan was in isolation, so imports were few. Ivory was a luxury item used only by people in the upper class, including the wives of feudal lords, and geisha, who had ivory combs and ornamental hairpins”, said Sakamoto.

Japan’s ivory trade rapidly grew during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) as the nation ended its isolation and started interacting actively with other countries, he said.

“World fairs and expos were held in major cities such as Paris, and

Japanese ivory crafts caught the attention of visitors”, said Sakamoto.

By then, ivory had become a major material for sculpting, replacing wood.

“The sculpture industry had suddenly turned white”, renowned sculptor Kotaro Takamura, who avoids using ivory, said.

Japan soon became an exporter of ivory works, and nationwide artisans grew rapidly, mostly in Tokyo and Osaka.

The industry saw its heyday during the rapid economic growth of the 1970s, when ivory seals became extremely popular.

While wood, stone, buffalo horns, cattle horns and crystal had been used for seals, ivory became more popular because it was cheaper and not subject to a commodity tax, Sakamoto said.

As time went on, ivory seals also became known as good luck items, increasing their popularity.

But after the international ban kicked in, the domestic ivory market shrank from about ¥20-billion in 1989 to ¥2-billion in 2014, according to an April report compiled by TRAFFIC, a research arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

How can one purchase ivory products in Japan now?

Online sites such as Yahoo Auction and Rakuten are the biggest platforms. A large segment of the ivory trade is on Yahoo Auction.

Thirty-two environmental groups, including the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency, have demanded that Yahoo Japan and

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SoftBank, which both run auction websites, ban sales of ivory products, claiming that some goods are unregistered and that their trade is illegal.

As of Friday 12 August, more than 1.4-million people had signed an online petition titled ‘Yahoo — stop your deadly ivory trade!’ via the Avaaz website.

“The ivory trade is pushing elephants to the edge of extinction, and Yahoo is making a killing from trinket sales in Japan. Several big brands like Google and Amazon are refusing to sell ivory,” it explained.

How can illegal trade be prevented, and are there loopholes that need closing?

Applicants who register to sell products only need to provide a photograph of the items, an explanation of how they were obtained, and verification from a third party, such as a family member.

The TRAFFIC report, however, is demanding stricter government regulations, including the tagging of all legal ivory products, both whole tusks and pieces, so they can be identified and traced. At present, tagging isn’t required when ivory is cut into pieces.

The report also calls for ivory sellers to be government-licensed and their names publicised, instead of the current registration system.

Sakamoto agrees, saying the government should require retailers to submit official documents for registration, including customs certificates.

“An ivory trader told me there are cases in which fake ivory is registered. This is

inevitable since even experts can’t tell what’s real just by looking at a picture”, he said.

What measures are other countries taking to save the elephants?

Last September, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to close down their respective domestic legal ivory markets. In the US, ivory trade has been banned almost entirely since 6 July.

Federal law prohibits the import or export, or trade from one state to another, of any ivory aside from that used in authentic antique goods or instruments. Many states are also considering instituting their own bans.

“The US decided that maintaining a legal market for ivory would become a cloak of invisibility for illegal trade. CITES member countries including Japan tried to ban illegal ivory by strictly controlling the market, but the result was a total failure”, Sakamoto said.

China, too, is expected to announce the schedule for closing its ivory market in late 2016 or early 2017.

In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Environment Ministry are debating how to respond to the international trend ahead of the CITES forum from 24 September to 5 October in Johannesburg (South Africa).

The ministries declined to comment.

Yahoo Japan, Rakuten and DeNA Co. as well as the national association of seal makers are also involved in the discussion and expected to reach a conclusion in late August.

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Tokyo has been reluctant to ban domestic trade, saying it can’t ban the sale of products legally obtained before the 1990 international ban.

“With approximately 30,000 elephants killed annually, most of the African countries are hoping for a total ban on ivory trade. Under such circumstances, it’s becoming an international trend to ban ivory trade, with the US, China and Hong Kong making decisions to close their markets”, Sakamoto said.

“As one of the largest ivory markets in the world, Japan should go along with the other countries”, he said.

Source: Japan Times /Conservation Action Trust

France introduces total ban on ivory sales

The sale of all elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn is now banned in France, Environment Minister Ségolène Royal decreed before leaving for the Arctic where she will examine the effects of global warming.

The ban “concerns all species of elephant and rhinoceros”, Minister Royal said in a statement Wednesday 17 August, although special exemptions may be granted.

And it does not prohibit the possession of ivory and rhinoceros horn. Many private individuals and museums own artefacts made from ivory, some of considerable age.

With African and Asian elephant populations threatened by the slaughter of animals for their ivory, a worldwide ban on the trade came into effect in

1989, but it did not cover the sale of ivory obtained before that date.

Poaching of elephants and rhinos, whose horns and tusks are used in traditional Chinese medicine, has continued and the populations have continued to decline.

Minister Royal announced that she intended to introduce a ban in April when she watched the destruction of 105-tons of ivory as part of a government campaign to stamp out poaching, an example France followed in 2014.

In July a position paper by the European Commission opposed a total ban the ivory trade, arguing that it would better for countries with growing elephant numbers to “sustainably manage” populations.

Source: RFI/Conservation Action Trust

Meeting on the illegal trade of animal species to focus on rhinos

Five animal species will be the focus of the upcoming CITES meeting due to take place in Johannesburg at the end of September.

Elephants‚ rhinos‚ tigers‚ sharks and pangolins will be discussed at the meeting‚ where delegates will vote on 62 proposals to regulate the trade in specific species and agenda items aimed at boosting the fight against wildlife crime.

Colman O’Criodain‚ a wildlife trade policy analyst for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)‚ said at a media briefing in Johannesburg that while there were proposals to legalise the trade of rhino

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horn and ivory‚ this would not solve the issue.

He said there was a need to focus on countries that were facilitating the illegal trade of the animal parts rather than solving the issue of supply or demand.

Regarding the sale of rhino horn‚ a study conducted by TRAFFIC‚ the wildlife trade monitoring network‚ found that consumption in Vietnam stands at about 7%. However, O’Criodain said this could jump to 22% if rhino horn were cheaper.

“If we consider that there is that level of demand‚ we (the WWF) are simply not convinced that farming rhino (horn) can meet that demand given that … 7% of people are already driving a poaching crisis”, O’Criodain said.

In South Africa‚ trade in rhino horn is still a fraught issue‚ with the Supreme Court of Appeals in May dismissing a government bid to uphold a seven-year ban on the domestic trade in rhino horn. The decision was described as a setback to government efforts to keep a lid on the domestic trade in rhino horn‚ which was imposed in 2009.

However, both buyers and sellers of rhino horn in South Africa still need to apply for a permit‚ so that the government can keep tabs on the commodity. South Africa is also a proponent of the global ban on the trade of Pangolin‚ which is the “most heavily traded mammal” O’Criodain said. The Asian populations of the pangolin are depleted while the African population is declining.

The tiger global population is just under 4‚000. While there had been

improvements in some countries‚ since 2010 there had been a need to identify the countries that were the main players in illegal trade‚ according to O’Criodain.

The convention will also propose regulation of global trade for mobula rays‚ silky sharks and thresher sharks‚ which are vulnerable to overfishing.

At the meeting‚ 182 countries will vote on a record number of proposals to regulate the trade in specific species and agenda items‚ to boost the fight against wildlife crime.

Source: TMG Digital/Business Day Live

EU to fund plan to boost low emission in Africa

Africa’s bid to combat the potentially devastating consequences of climate change has received a major boost with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and EU announcing plans to spend €3.42-million to bolster low-carbon, climate-resilient development on the continent.

Climate change threatens to push millions of people in Africa into extreme poverty by 2030 as crop yields decline, water grows scarce, droughts intensify and food prices increase. Roughly 18-million people on the continent could be affected by floods every year as global warming rises.

As climate change intensifies, it is essential that the continent takes steps to lower emissions and reduce the harm caused by climate change. To make this a reality, the EU will spend €3.42-million over three years on the Africa Low Emissions Development Strategy (LEDS) Planning, Modelling and

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Implementation project. The project will see the EU work closely with partners like the Africa LEDS Partnership (AfLP) and the LEDS Global Partnership to support Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) in Africa.

The project aims to contribute to a prosperous, climate-resilient Africa for the welfare of current and future generations. It aims to promote low-carbon, climate-resilient development to alleviate poverty, create jobs and improve environmental management on the continent.

To achieve this, the EU-UNEP project is designed to boost local knowledge and expertise among African nations in order to bolster plans for low emission, climate-resilient, and resource efficient socio-economic development.

Building on the landmark Paris Agreement, the project will support countries as they seek to implement their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, which are commitments made by each country that signed the agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming.

Starting this month, the EU-UNEP project involves two components. The first will focus on strategic level interventions aimed at building the capacity of countries for LEDS planning and policy integration at sectorial and economy wide scales. The second will

focus on tactical and technical capacity building.

The specific tools and models chosen to achieve this will depend on the circumstances of individual countries, such as the presence of existing models, data availability, local technical capacity, and the areas of most interest and need.

These could include Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LEAP), MARKet ALlocation (MARKAL), Tool for Rapid Assessment of City Energy (TRACE), SWERA, Energy and Power Evaluation Program (ENPEP-BALANCE), HOMER, Marginal Abatement Cost Tool (MACTool), among others.

The project will involve two components. The first component will be a pilot, targeting eight countries (Cameroon, DRC, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana, Morocco, and Kenya). The second one will see the project replicated and scaled up across other countries of the continent.

Using environment ministries as hubs, the project will seek to build teams from other policy level stakeholders in the ministries of energy and industry, and stakeholders in academia, the private sector, resident UN agencies, NGOs, and CSOs engaged with aspects of LEDS planning.

Source: Today.ng

NOTICE

In order to support the campaign to save the Rhino please support the Focus Africa Foundation by

liking the Focus Africa Foundation Facebook Page at: Focus-Africa Foundation as well the Focus

Africa Foundation Website at www.focus-africa.org

The Focus-Africa Foundation is solely dedicated to the support of the Joaquim Chissano Foundation

Mozambique Wildlife Preservation Initiative and the re-introduction of the rhino to Mozambique

(extinct in this country since 2013)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Focus-Africa-Foundation/640463866006417

http://www.focus-africa.org/

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HEALTH

More than 3% of the Mozambican population suffers from mental disorders

On Friday 12 August, the Ministry of Health revealed that mental illnesses affect 3.4% of the country’s population, a problem that has worsened in the past decade.

Speaking to the media on the side-lines of a meeting on the strategy for combating mental illness, the head of the Department of Mental Health in the ministry, Lydia Gouveia, said that schizophrenia and epilepsy are the most common mental illnesses/disorders in the country.

“Schizophrenia and epilepsy are among the most common disorders in both consultations and in hospital”, said Gouveia.

Gouveia said that this year 70,000 psychiatric consultations were registered. “We are concerned about the young people who consume too much alcohol and cannabis sativa (marijuana) which can cause irreversible psychiatric disorders”, Gouveia said.

Source: @Verdade

Ipswich Hospital staff teach colleagues in Mozambique as part of knowledge-sharing project

Staff from a Suffolk Hospital who have volunteered their skills and expertise to boost healthcare overseas have been helping colleagues in Mozambique implement safety improvements for their patients.

Peter Donaldson, retired surgeon; Sarah Cavanagh, senior pharmacist; and nurse Luana Vendramel recently returned from a week-long visit to Beira Central Hospital (Sofala Province), where they reviewed the way in which medication is managed, taught new skills to staff and improved equipment maintenance.

The trip came as part of a two-year government-funded initiative, which sees staff from Ipswich Hospital share their knowledge while improving their own leadership skills and ability to work under pressure in difficult circumstances.

It builds on a long-established partnership between Beira and Ipswich, which began in 2001 when diabetes consultant Prof John Day started a charitable trust to develop the medical school at the University of Mozambique.

“I have found this whole project hugely rewarding”, said Donaldson, who has now visited the country four times. “It’s been a great experience and has brought some real benefits for the people who work in the hospital and their patients.

“The facilities in Beira are quite challenging, and the infrastructure is so degraded that they struggle with basic amenities such as a reliable water supply. Despite this, the hospital cares successfully for several million people, carries out significant surgery and looks after lots of patients with serious illness, including malaria and other communicable diseases.

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“A key focus of our work has been improving training for doctors, nurses and pharmacists and providing some basic equipment. We have helped organise the pharmacy and taught staff how to manage medicines more effectively and safely, which has made a real difference.

“We have also arranged training for local engineers and provided them with tools so that they can service and repair vital equipment for the benefit of patients”.

Since the partnership began, the team has noticed significant improvements in Beira. Endoscopy and X-ray equipment and anaesthetic ventilators are now working more effectively after months of disrepair, while medicines are now being labelled and stored more safely.

In addition, recent investment from China has seen an ambitious programme of development at the hospital, with the emergency

department refurbished and a new paediatric unit now under construction.

“Although some of the changes we have made are small, they are nevertheless important and we believe they will have a big impact reducing medication errors”, added Donaldson, former medical director at Ipswich Hospital.

“Those who volunteer are also bringing benefits back to the NHS, such as increased knowledge and leadership skills, a better knowledge of healthcare in other cultures and an improved ability to deal with complex situations under pressure.

“We hope that we will be able to attract further funding when the current project comes to an end in February, so that it can continue to bring benefits to both our own patients in Ipswich and those receiving care in Beira”.

Source: Ipswich Star

END

mozambique weekly

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