Vast mineral riches were supposed to lift Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, but a new report argues they instead helped light the fuse of an insurgency. The study, Mozambique Exposed, details how resentment tied to natural resources became a potent recruitment message for militants, as residents watched the area’s wealth extracted amid allegations of corruption and abuses by security forces.
According to the report, the discovery of ruby deposits in Cabo Delgado in 2009 transformed the province into the source of about 80 percent of the world’s ruby reserves. Yet the gains have been unevenly distributed, it found. Montepuez Ruby Mining — a leading operator in the sector — obtained a 25-year concession in 2012 and is partly owned by a senior figure within Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party.
That combination of concentrated profits and rising frustration in rural communities, the report said, had been simmering for years around Montepuez Ruby Mining and other resource ventures. By 2017, it concluded, the accumulated anger spilled over into open violence, providing militants with a ready-made grievance to exploit.
