Mozambique presidency frontrunner plans talks to end insurgency

Chapo is the presidential candidate for the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, which has ruled the nation of nearly 35 million since independence from Portugal in 1975.

Daniel Chapo, the ruling-party candidate in Mozambique’s October 9 presidential election, said he favours talks to end an Islamic State-backed insurgency that’s delayed TotalEnergies SE’s planned $20 billion liquefied natural gas export project in the northeast of the country.

The government in the southeast African nation has struggled to contain the insurgency that in 2021 prompted a group led by TotalEnergies to halt work on what was Africa’s biggest private investment, and evacuate its workers. Chapo, a lawyer, said he would employ a two-pronged strategy to end the stalemate.

“One approach is to combat terrorism on the ground,” he said in an interview. “But also to find a way to dialog with those behind this situation so that we can really overcome this situation so that there can be security and peace in that region, allowing the development of the LNG projects.”

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Seeking to talk to the instigators of the violence would be a new plan of action for the government, which has so far dismissed the option. The conflict has left at least 5 793 people dead, according to the Cabo Ligado website that tracks it, and prompted hundreds of thousands to flee their homes since it began seven years ago.

Chapo is the presidential candidate for the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, which has ruled the nation of nearly 35 million since independence from Portugal in 1975. He’s competing against three opposition leaders and is widely expected to win. Chapo was a surprise pick for his party, as a relatively unknown provincial governor who’d never served as a cabinet minister.

Military assistance

Following a large-scale insurgent attack that prompted TotalEnergies to halt its project, incumbent President Filipe Nyusi’s government asked for military help from Rwanda, as well as the 16-member Southern African Development Community. While the regional bloc’s deployment ended in July, Rwanda this year sent an additional 2 000 troops.

Nyusi is stepping down after having served the constitutional limit of two terms. Chapo has at least a 70% chance of winning next week’s election, according to Eurasia Group.

Asked about Rwanda’s ongoing role, Chapo said he’d leave that decision until he’s in office.

“At this moment it’s very difficult to say in detail how this is going to be because I’m a candidate,” he said. “But I am absolutely sure that after I have taken office I will receive the dossier, and only after understanding the details of the dossier in a very detailed way, a response can really be given as to how this cooperation that exists at this moment will be responded to.”

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