The director of the African department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) argued on Thursday that it is necessary to “resolve as quickly as possible” the violence in northern Mozambique, warning that the conflict is influencing the evolution of the country’s economy.
“What is happening in Cabo Delgado, in Palma, is really horrible, all the more so because this latent insurgency was identified as a threat several years ago,” Abebe Aemro Selassie said Thursday at the press conference presenting the Regional Economic Outlook: sub-Saharan Africa report in Washington.
“Unless this is dealt with appropriately, the conflict will have a major influence on the evolution of the economy and gas production, on which the country wants to depend henceforth, this needs to be resolved as soon as possible,” warned the director of the Fund’s African department.
The IMF expects Mozambique to recover from last year’s 0.5 percent recession and grow by 2.1 percent this year and 4.7 percent in 2022.
Armed violence in Cabo Delgado has been going on for three and a half years but escalated again on 24 March when armed groups first attacked the town of Palma, which is about six kilometres from the multi-billion dollar natural gas projects.
The incursion caused dozens of deaths and forced thousands of Palma residents to flee, aggravating a humanitarian crisis that has already caused more than 2,500 deaths, according to Lusa, and has affected around 700,000 displaced persons since the beginning of the conflict, according to United Nations data.
