Pemba, Mozambique, Aug. 20, 2025 (Lusa) - Road hauliers in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado denounced on Tuesday that the upsurge in terrorist attacks, particularly on this activity, has reduced the available service by 25%, due to fear of ransom demands and vehicles being destroyed by insurgents.
"They are robbing the hauliers, the economic agents of this province," the president of the Cabo Delgado Road Hauliers Association, Cassimo Ibraimo, told Lusa, complaining of attacks on several national roads, not just on the Macomia to Awasse stretch of the N380, which since July has once again had military escort traffic.
"At this very moment, we are living in a time of terror (...), in what used to be the value of being a transporter. Because 75% of our vehicles can no longer carry what is their daily bread, because we are targets on the roads," he lamented, confirming that these professionals have abandoned the activity, fearful of attacks.
"We no longer realise who we're fighting (...). We're questioned, kidnapped, forced to take the money," he also noted, pointing to the need to reinforce and extend military escorts for hauliers to other routes, namely the Macomia to Silva Macua stretch of the N380, which has also seen attacks in recent months.
Faced with threats to hijack and destroy their vehicles, transporting cargo and passengers, some hauliers report having to pay 200,000 to 350,000 meticais (€2,691 to €4,710) to continue their journey, which is putting an end to business in some areas of Cabo Delgado.
"The government has to make an effort to help the private sector, because the economy, not only the hauliers, but also our fellow entrepreneurs in the north, depend on our hauliers, but when the hauliers are failing, the population is starving. It's us here who are taking food there, it's us who are taking a cousin to visit his brother because he's ill," Cassimo Ibraimo recalled.
Cabo Delgado businesspeople called on Mozambique's government at the beginning of the month to double the current security force escorts in Macomia, along 100 kilometres to Awasse, Mocímboa da Praia, to stop attacks by extremist groups on transporters.
Between March and July of this year alone, that stretch of road saw 104 attacks on hauliers, demanding ransom payments to allow drivers to continue their journey, leading businesspeople to put pressure on the government to resume military escorts, the president of the Cabo Delgado business council, Mamudo Irache, explained to Lusa in Pemba on 1 August.
But for Cabo Delgado's businessmen, more is needed: "We are working with the provincial command to see if the escort is carried out twice a day".
He described the general fear on the ground, given the threats of attacks, at a time when there has been an upsurge in violence for several weeks: "And without paying, there was no way to get the car out. They either burned it or paid for it. And one of the ways not to lose the car was to ask for support and make the payment," recalled Irache.
"Payment was made on the spot. I wasn't going to say I'm going to transfer it tomorrow. It's on the spot," he explained, pointing out that some businessmen even had to transfer the money via digital wallet.
Without a military escort, he says, the recommendation is not to drive on that stretch of the N380, one of the few asphalted roads in the region.
Cabo Delgado province, located in the north of the country and rich in gas, has been facing an armed rebellion since 2017, which has caused thousands of deaths and a humanitarian crisis, with more than a million people displaced.
In the Chiúre district alone, in the south of Cabo Delgado, attacks by insurgent groups caused around 57,000 displaced people in the last week of August, according to organisations on the ground.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
