Africa-Press – Mozambique. The governor of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, Valige Tauabo, announced on Tuesday the resumption of military escorts on the most dangerous stretch of road in the province.
According to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, Tauabo was speaking at a meeting in the town of Mueda between the provincial government, representatives of the defence and security forces, and businesses from the northern districts of Cabo Delgado. He was responding to a serious threat that terrorist attacks on the roads might paralyse all commercial activity in those districts.
A letter from the Mueda district delegation of the Confederation of Business Associations (CTA) to the governor’s office warned that companies would stop using the roads unless the security situation improved. The threatened shutdown would last for at least seven days, counted from 21 July.
The businesses protested at repeated attacks on National Highway 380, the main road in the north of the province, particularly on the stretch between Macomia town and the Ouasse crossroads. In the recent attacks, the terrorists have blocked the road, seized drivers and passengers, and demanded a ransom to release them.
If the owners of the vehicles are unable or unwilling to pay the ransom, the vehicles are set on fire and the kidnap victims are killed.
The shutdown of businesses began on Monday, forcing Tauabo to travel on Mueda on Tuesday to meet with the business people. At the meeting, the businesses accused the government of paying no attention to their concerns. They said that they were running up heavy losses because of the ransoms they had been forced to pay to the terrorists, which could be as much as 350,000 meticais (about 5,500 US dollars) per vehicle.
Faced with this pressure. Tauabo announced that military escorts would resume along the Macomia-Ouasse road from this Wednesday (23 July) until the situation was deemed to have returned to normal.
Tauabo’s announcement met with a round of applause – but his audience demanded that the escorts should be “serious and committed”.
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