Mozambique, how gas extraction is accelerating the civil war

Mozambique is rich in liquefied gas but the jihadist insurrection is blocking its extraction.The only operational project is that of Eni.

• A civil war, disguised as clashes with jihadists, has been ongoing in Mozambique since 2017.
• Despite being in third place in Africa in terms of gas reserves, Mozambique is among the last ten countries in the world in terms of human development index.
• The extraction of fossil fuels is accelerating the crisis in the African country.

On May 10, the city of Macomia, in the northern district of the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, was attacked by an armed group linked to the Islamic State (IS) who attacked shops and warehouses.More than 700 people fled into the surrounding woods and at least 9 were killed, according to Human Rights Watch.The fighters also recruited child soldiers, i.e. those under the age of 13, a practice that represents a crime against humanity.

It is not the first time that Cabo Delgado has been shaken by attacks of this type:the last one was in February, when several raids occurred in cities and villages resulting in murders and kidnappings.Mozambique is an African country rich in natural resources (including rubies and graphite) and it is in third place in Africa for gas reserves, preceded only by Nigeria and Algeria.This wealth has meant that various interests in the energy field are concentrated here by various multinationals and European countries. Including Italy.

Mozambique victim of resource hoarding

Despite the boom in the hydrocarbon sector over the past decade, Mozambique remains among the last ten positions in the human development index according to the UN, even recording a worsening of two positions between 2015 and 2021.With a poorly diversified economy, the African country – which recently announced a maxi-energy transition plan – is particularly dependent on development aid and the fossil fuel industry.

The main extractive activities are concentrated in the districts of Mocímboa da Praia and Palma, as reconstructed by the organization ReCommon.Off the coast of Mozambique, in the Rovuma basin, the Italian multinational Eni has started the only operational project so far:the floating production and liquefaction platform Coral South FLNG, which has been exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) since November 2022.A second project, Coral North Flng, is currently under study.

In 2019, the French multinational TotalEnergies, with the engineering of the Italian Saipem, began construction in the same area but on land of the "Mozambique LNG" project to liquefy and export Rovuma gas.However, Total, which has the largest private investment in Africa right here in Mozambique, stopped work in April 2021 due to armed insurgency in the region.In fact, the Mozambique LNG project never began extraction.Also the Rovuma Lng project, managed by ExxonMobil and Eni, was suspended for the same reason.

A real civil war is underway in Mozambique

In recent years there has been a bloody internal conflict, a civil war in disguise from wars between gangs of Islamic terrorists and the military.The Macomia attack, according to journalist Stefano Liberti, represented a qualitative leap in the insurrection that is devastating northern Mozambique.After a period of relative calm, the jihadists returned to attack an urban center, bringing the conflict back to a regional level.

The causes are first of all social, explains Liberti in the podcast The World, as "the great powers of the south" hoard the resources of the north, leaving the young people of the region without prospects.A void that was filled with the insurrection, which from social has transformed into religious, turning to Islamism.

The uprising, led by the Ahl al-Sunnah wa al Jamma'ah group also known as Al-Shabaab (not to be confused with the Islamist group in Somalia) began in 2017 but only captured international attention in 2020, when the insurgents they took control of Mocímboa da Praia and Palma. The violence has caused over 4,000 deaths and displaced around 900,000 people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

2017 is also the same year that major energy companies signed fossil mining contracts with the Mozambican government.“Which does not mean that the war is caused by gas extraction,” explains Liberti but certainly fossil fuels have accelerated the social breakdown of the region.In May 2023, TotalEnergies published a report on human rights in Cabo Delgado, authored by Jean-Christophe Rufin.The report highlights that the frustration of local communities, exacerbated by the expansion of the extractive industry, is fueling the insurgency.

Rufin's intention is not to block the deposits, of course not.Rather, the objective is to measure the degree of risk that extractive projects become targets of terrorist attacks.Indeed, instability in the region casts a shadow on the future of mining projects, including “Mozambique Lng”, whose recovery is strongly supported by TotalEnergies.

In Italy, only 3.3 percent of Mozambican gas

A situation that also directly involves Italy, which treats Mozambique as a "strategic asset" for its energy security, as also established by Mattei Plan.In reality, Eni only does the work of upstream, that is, the gas extracted from Coral South Flng is purchased by BP (British Petroleum) and then resold by it on the international market.According to Urgewald data, 58 loads of liquefied natural gas have been made since the first load in November 2022, for a total of approximately 3,700 tonnes, of which only 3.3 percent – 122 tons – was destined for Italy.A little too little for Mozambique's LNG to serve to guarantee our energy security.