Nine days after a group affiliated with the Islamic State captured the city of Palma, the Total group closed its gas station in northeastern Mozambique.
The threat was undoubtedly too great for Total. Nine days after the attack on Palma by a jihadist group, a security source told AFP that the group evacuated all staff from their Afungi gas station, which is a few kilometers away. On Friday, the mega-project for the production of liquefied natural gas came to a complete standstill.
On March 24, armed groups attacked Palma, a port city of 75,000 people, killing dozens of civilians, police and soldiers. The carefully prepared raid was claimed by the Islamic State group (EI).
The French energy giant, now under the protection of the Mozambican army, has not lamented any casualties and the site has not been targeted directly, but while the army is still trying to capture Palma, a security source quoted by AFP reports that rebels have been spotted near the gas station in recent days. Other, thousands of people fled Palma has flowed for nine days to the site of the Afungi Peninsula. On Friday, there were almost 15,000 in the gas concession and several thousand at the site’s gates.
Work on the future gas operation, which is scheduled to become operational in 2024, had already been suspended since the end of December following a series of jihadist attacks in the vicinity. This had resulted in the evacuation of some of the staff. Nine days after the attack on the city of Palma, it is now certain: the multi-billion mega project will suffer a huge delay.
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