How an Insurgency Threatens Mozambique’s Gas Bonanza

If all goes as planned, one of the world’s poorest countries will be transformed by Africa’s biggest-ever private investment splurge, but there’s a problem. Attacks by Islamist insurgents threaten hopes of exploiting huge natural gas deposits off Mozambique’s northern coast. More than 2,800 people have been killed and 700,000 displaced since violence began in 2017. The country’s export ambitions are linked to projects by some of the world’s biggest energy companies, but investments are being held up by the fighting.

As much as $120 billion in investment, according to Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s largest lender. It’s unlikely all that money will materialize, especially if the violence continues. Still, even some projects would be a game-changer not just for Mozambique, where almost two-thirds of its 32 million people live on less than $1.90 a day, but potentially for neighboring countries as well. Besides providing a massive boost to state finances, it would also create several thousand construction jobs. Gas production could also bring changes that would address chronic electricity shortages and boost fertilizer production to drive crop output.