Macomia, Mozambique, Aug. 1, 2025 (Lusa) - Business leaders in Cabo Delgado have called on Mozambique’s government to double the current security force escort along the 100-kilometre stretch of road from Macomia to Awasse, Mocímboa da Praia, to protect transporters from extremist attacks.
Between March and July this year, that section of the N380 road recorded 104 attacks on transporters, with the attackers demanding ransom payments to allow drivers to continue their journey, prompting business leaders to pressure the government to resume military escorts, the president of the Cabo Delgado business council told Lusa on Friday.
“From 23 July [when escorts resumed on that stretch] until today, the operation has remained incident-free. At least until today, we are happy with the work being done in the field, and this work is the result of dialogue with the government,” said Mamudo Irache.
For a week now, the escort has been running once a day in each direction, leaving Macomia in the early hours of the morning to ensure a safe journey of almost three hours for hundreds of transporters, traders, businesspeople and passengers.
But for businesspeople in Cabo Delgado, more is needed: “We are working with the provincial command to see if the command can provide the escort twice a day.”
“We are negotiating with the provincial command of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique [PRM] to see if one escort can sleep in Awasse and another in Macomia, so that they can cross paths. “We are working on this with the government, and we will probably have results in the next few days,” explained Irache, who represents the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA) in Cabo Delgado, the largest representative of the Mozambican private sector.
Since the authorities reintroduced these escorts, after suspending them for over a year, the situation has become peaceful, according to the representative of local businesspeople.
“It’s something we saw for the first time in this way; it had happened before, but never as it has in this period (...). They would stop the cars, order the drivers to halt, and then search the vehicles. If drivers paid, they could retrieve the car. The choice was clear: pay or watch the car burn. To keep the car, people asked for help and made the payment,” he recalls.
“Payment was immediate. You would transfer the money tomorrow, he explains, pointing out that some business owners even had to transfer 350,000 meticais (€4,800) via digital wallet to secure their vehicles and goods, while passengers had to transfer over 10,000 meticais (€135).
“We transferred the amounts. Now, they asked us to transfer the amounts. Which account is it? Whose account is it? We let the authorities investigate because the responsibility lies with them. They are probably doing their job,” he adds.
Currently, Mamudo Irache says that travellers should use a military escort and travel on that section of the N380, one of the few paved roads in the region.
“We have already warned our transporters, and they are complying with the orders to proceed only with an escort. When an incident occurs, we can justify it only with an escort. If we request an escort, we must obey the escort,” he explained, acknowledging that the need for escorts is currently limited to the section between Macomia and Mocímboa da Praia.
The appeal has already reached the governor of Cabo Delgado province, Valige Tauabo: “The communities and our businesspeople bring valuable contributions. We want our people to be well, and we want our businesspeople and traders to carry out their activities in the best possible way, safely.”
Tauabo recalled that "for a long time" the N380 "did not require the intervention of an escort" and motorists could drive "freely, whenever they wanted", but fear and attacks have changed the scenario in recent weeks.
"Now there is a request for reinforcement. We welcome the reinforcement (...). We will evaluate it and, within the strategies of the Defence and Security Forces, we will listen. If we approve it, that is what we want most. If we do not approve it, another way exists to carry out the protection work so that motorists remain safe,” added the governor.
The gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, has been facing an armed rebellion since 2017, which has left thousands dead and caused a humanitarian crisis with more than a million people displaced.
The governor acknowledges a resurgence of activity by these extremist groups in the last three months, a trend that has become more pronounced since the end of June, particularly in the south of the province, where in the last few days alone, thousands of people have fled to Chiúre and neighbouring Nampula.
Mamudo Irache, also a businessman in the freight transport and agriculture sector, with almost a hundred workers in Cabo Delgado, recalls how the attacks affected his business, causing losses exceeding seven million meticais (€95,000) in a single attack in 2021: “In Quissanga, I lost two cars. One was a passenger vehicle and the other was a truck.” And someone burned down the office. So it’s a feeling of suffering.”
“A very big loss,” says the businessman, who currently has a fleet of 28 transport vehicles connecting the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Zambézia and Niassa.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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