Page 11 - Aruba Today
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Thursday 28 January 2016
Foes from Mozambique’s war spar as energy windfall looms
C. TORCHIA ment denies. Last week, A boy is photographed with armed guards in front of a mural of she said in an interview in
Associated Press Manuel Bissopo, general the late president Samora Machel at ‘Armed Forces Day’ cel- her Maputo office in Oc-
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A secretary of the main op- ebrations in the capital Maputo. But the mural of Machel in mili- tober that the benefits of
bronze statue of a former position movement Ren- tary uniform is a symbol of division for some in a resource-rich an expected “tsunami of
president looms in Mozam- amo, was seriously injured nation shadowed by a civil war history. money” in a decade or so
bique’s capital, but the when gunmen fired on his could be undercut by cor-
likeness of Samora Machel car in Beira city, Mozambi- (AP Photo) ruption, poor planning and
— imposing in military uni- can media reported. protectionist policies that
form and with pointed fin- The backstory is the rivalry a country expecting a fi- of the fledgling energy in- hurt free trade.
ger — is a symbol of division between Frelimo, a former nancial windfall in coming dustry, according to some Italian energy firm Eni SpA
for some in a resource-rich Marxist guerrilla move- years from natural gas finds analysts. and Anadarko Petro-
nation shadowed by a civil ment led by Machel that off the northern coast. “Everybody is lining up to leum Corp. of the United
war legacy. took power after indepen- The tension between Re- figure out how to get it,” States are developing the
Far from history-steeped dence from the Portuguese namo (the Portuguese ac- said Brigit Helms, who ad- Rovuma reserves in Mo-
Maputo, dotted with faded in 1975, and Renamo, the ronym stands for Mozam- vised on trade policy in zambique, which could
Art Deco buildings made force that fought Frelimo bican National Resistance) Mozambique for the U.S. become the world’s third-
by Portuguese colonizers for more than 15 years in a and Frelimo (Mozambique Agency for International largest exporter of lique-
and streets named after conflict that killed up to 1 Liberation Front) partly re- Development. fied natural gas after Qatar
Karl Marx and other revo- million. They are now rivals flects jockeying for cuts Before leaving her post, and Australia, according
lutionaries, fresh reports of in the political arena, with to the International Mone-
violence between old bat- Frelimo coming on top in tary Fund. Total investment
tlefield adversaries suggest national elections. A return is projected to exceed
a 1992 peace deal never to war seems remote: the $100 billion, the IMF said.
quite took hold. two sides have engaged Poor infrastructure and low-
Several thousand people in in dialogue, and Renamo er commodity prices ham-
Mozambique’s Tete prov- is no longer a formidable per Mozambique. Poverty
ince, which has large coal military power. Yet the is widespread among the
reserves, recently fled into fact that Renamo, once 27 million people even
neighboring Malawi, alleg- backed by white-minority though the economy is
ing violent persecution by rulers in then-Rhodesia and one of the fastest-growing
government troops — a apartheid South Africa, in Africa, averaging 7 per-
charge that the govern- still has weapons unsettles cent annually.q
