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/ 12 January 2010
A member of Mozambique’s Parliament says most of the main opposition party’s politicians boycotted a swearing-in ceremony.
Mozambique has placed its ports of entry on high alert and officials are looking out for any incidences of swine flu.
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/ 14 January 2009
Floods in Mozambique have claimed at least 25 lives since December, officials said in reports on Wednesday.
At least 10 people have been killed in the heavy rains battering Mozambique since December, the daily paper Noticias reported on Tuesday
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/ 8 December 2008
The man behind the murder in 2000 of prominent Mozambican investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso escaped for the third time from custody on Sunday.
In Maputo, Bayano Valy finds a range of explanations for the attacks on foreigners in South Africa.
Mozambique has received nearly 20 000 citizens fleeing South Africa, said Deputy Foreign Minister Henrique Banze, adding that the government there had set up three reception centres around the capital Maputo. He denied reports that the Mozambican government had declared a state of emergency.
Mozambican authorities have ordered tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in the Limpopo River valley near Kruger National Park after one of the floodgates on a dam on the river broke. The breakage, which occurred despite recent repairs on the dam, comes as it fills to unseasonally high levels.
Mozambique said on Friday it had beefed up security at South Africa’s embassy in Maputo to prevent any retaliation over the xenophobic violence that has engulfed Johannesburg townships. ”We are taking measures to prevent retaliatory action by furious Mozambicans,” police spokesperson Arnaldo Chefo said.
Mozambique’s power utility Cahora Bassa Hydro Electric (HCB) plans to boost power output from the Cahora Bassa Dam by up to 1 000 megawatts in order to meet local and regional power demands. A new study will seek to evaluate the dam’s potential to increase output, said HCB CEO Paulo Muxanga on Saturday.
The African Development Bank (ADB) has lent -million to fund Eskom’s multibillion-dollar expansion project, and to help the power-starved country achieve 6% economic growth from 2010, the bank said on Wednesday. Eskom is battling to shore up electricity supplies due an economic boom that has boosted demand.
Africa’s economy will grow by 6% this year and next, an acceleration from 2007, owing to high oil prices and demand for commodities, research from the African Development Bank (ADB) showed on Monday. The joint research was released ahead of the ADB’s annual meeting, which starts in Maputo, Mozambique, on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe has paid back 000 in arrears to the African Development Bank (ADB), despite vast economic problems at home, as part of efforts to meet commitments to donors, the bank said on Monday. ”Zimbabwe has in all paid 000 to the bank group despite numerous economic challenges,” the bank said.
Mozambican police on Wednesday denied recent accusations by Amnesty International of having a ”mandate to kill” in regard to policing the country. Police spokesperson First Deputy Police Commissioner Carlos Rungo said that accusations of the police killing and torturing citizens with near total impunity were completely untrue.
Police in Mozambique are killing and torturing people with near total impunity, according to a report by Amnesty International released on Tuesday. "Police in Mozambique seem to think they have a licence to kill, and the weak police accountability system allows for this," Michelle Kagari, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Africa Programme, said.
Up to 15 illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa were trafficked every day through Maputo’s Mavalane International airport to South Africa, the Mozambican media reported on Saturday. O PaÃÂs said that this was done with the involvement of officials from the police, airports security, immigration and customs officials, and private airport security guards.
Mozambique’s target of 8% economic growth this year is realistic despite floods and cyclones which hit the country this year, a World Bank official said. The World Bank’s Mozambique director Michael Baxter also said inflation, which stood at 8,4% in 2007, could be kept in single digits in 2008.
A Chinese ship carrying arms to Zimbabwe, which was turned away from South Africa, is heading to Angola in hopes of docking there, the transport minister of Mozambique said on Saturday. The ship left South African waters on Friday after a court refused to allow the weapons to be transported across South Africa.
A new coal thermal power project already approved by the Mozambican government in the north-western province of Tete could provide solutions to the power crisis in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, which is looking to Mozambique to solve the crisis.
Mozambique and South Africa on Friday agreed to speed up work on new energy-production projects to benefit both countries, South African Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said. This was among several issues discussed at a one-day binational commission in Maputo, also attended by President Thabo Mbeki.
South Africa’s state power utility is near a deal to buy more electricity from Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa development in a bid to ease an energy crisis threatening Africa’s largest economy, a Mozambican official said on Tuesday. Eskom is negotiating to buy an additional 250MW of electricity per day from Hydroelectrica de Cahora Bassa.
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza has fired his defence minister barely a week after the sacking of some top military officers. In a terse presidential statement on Wednesday, Guebuza said he had replaced Tobias Dai with businessman Fillipe Nhussi.
Mozambique criminal investigation police have arrived in South Africa to negotiate the extradition of a woman alleged to be a child sex-slave trafficker, news reports said on Tuesday. The woman is accused of enticing Mozambican girls across the border to Pretoria where they are used as sex slaves.
About a million people have suffered the effects of floods, cyclones and heavy rains across Southern Africa in the last year, the United Nations said in a statement issued on Tuesday. ”In total, local authorities estimate that 987 516 Southern Africans have been affected adversely by rains, floods and cyclones since October last year.
More than 8 000 Mozambican nationals living illegally in South Africa were repatriated to their country in March, one of the highest monthly figures after a visa-waiver agreement was introduced in April 2005. In February, at least 3 577 illegal Mozambicans were repatriated through the Ressano Garcia border post.
Wild animals killed at least 133 people and seriously injured 50 in Mozambique last year, the Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday. ”This is a very high figure, but lower than the 144 of last year,” departmental official Tomas Zimba said, confirming that the figures were contained in a ministry report.
The Mozambican government has made an urgent appeal to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to help more than 60 000 people left destitute when Cyclone Jokwe hit northern and central parts of the country. The WFP said in a statement it would begin distributing food to needy communities early next week.
Violence at the hands of security forces, lynchings and vigilantism against criminals, are tarnishing Mozambique’s human rights record, according to a new report by the United States. The US State Department’s country report on human rights, launched in Maputo, said there had been a rise in vigilante killings.
As tropical cyclone Jokwe threatened the tourism districts of Vilankulo and Govuro on Wednesday, the government of Inhambane province advised business owners and residents to take precautions. The state broadcaster reported that the owners of tourism establishments near the coast were being encouraged to close their businesses.
A cyclone that has battered coastal areas of northern and central Mozambique has killed at least 16 people and hundreds more have been injured, rescue services said on Tuesday. Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of the national disaster-management institute, said that six people were killed by Cyclone Jokwe between Saturday and Sunday.
Tropical cyclone Jokwe battered parts of Mozambique for a third day on Monday, killing at least eight people and destroying thousands of homes in the northern Nampula province, Radio Mozambique reported. Four districts were being lashed by heavy downpours and strong winds of up to 200km/h, said the broadcaster.
Tropical cyclone Jokwe lashed northern Mozambique on Sunday, killing at least one person and destroying over 500 homes, a meteorological official said. Mussa Mustafa, head of Mozambique’s National Meteorological Institute, said the cyclone, which swept through part of Madagascar last week, is expected to intensify by Monday.