Stretches of pristine beaches wind around Mozambique’s coast, a slice of paradise where trouble is brewing as foreigners cash in at the expense of locals from a boom in tourism. Practically destroyed during a 27-year civil war ending in 1994, tourism in the former Portuguese colony has skyrocketed in recent years, as holidaymakers are drawn to its white sands and crystal clear waters.
More than 1Â 000 Mozambicans, including children, are trafficked to South Africa every year where they are forced into prostitution or used as free or cheap labour. In response, Mozambique’s Cabinet last week approved a new law that will make human trafficking a crime punishable by long prison sentences.
Mozambique’s state-run railway company said on Friday it was investing -million to upgrade its fleet in a move to cut -million in wagon hiring fees charged by rail freight firm Spoornet. CFM, which operates the African nation’s railways and ports, plans to refurbish 820 refurbished wagons with the investment.
A court on Thursday denied parental rights to the father of a girl who became a symbol of Mozambican hope after being born in a tree during the devastating floods of 2000. The Chibuto District Court ruled that her father, Salvador Mabuiango, had cheated her by selling off goods donated to her after her birth.
The World Bank agreed on Monday to give Mozambique -million in credit to help upgrade its road network, most of which was damaged and neglected during a 17-year civil war that ended in 1992. Mozambique will be exempt from interest and have 40 years to pay back the funds.
Mozambique hopes to recruit 8Â 000 doctors from other African nations to improve a healthcare system battered by one of the continent’s worst Aids pandemics, the country’s health minister said on Monday.
About 600 Mozambican nationals illegally living in South Africa are being deported back to their country every week, government officials said on Friday. According to a statement, ”most of the people normally coming to South Africa stay for more than a planned 30 days, breaking the visa agreements between the two countries signed in 2005”.
Mozambique is expecting over a million foreign visitors this year, the largest number in decades, the Deputy Tourism Minister said on Tuesday. Rosario Mualeia said that foreign visitors would bring about -million to the country. Mualeia said investment in the tourism sector was expected to total -million this year.
More than 300Â 000 people living with HIV/Aids need antiretroviral treatment in Mozambique, but only a fraction of them are actually receiving the drugs, national media reported on Thursday. UNAids estimates that at least 230Â 000 are in need of antiretroviral drugs throughout the country.
At least 80 Mozambican children lost their parents to the blasts at the national army’s Malhazine armoury in Maputo in March. Spokesperson Luis Covina told national Radio Mozambique that authorities had finished compiling a ”social impact report” of the blasts. According to official figures the death toll was 103, while more than 500 were injured.
An inquiry is under way in Mozambique to determine whether ”death brigades” existed within the national police that carried out summary executions of prisoners, according to a report by the Attorney General. One of the ”death brigades” is suspected to have slain three prisoners on a field near Costa do Sol beach in Maputo last month.
The Malaria death toll continues to rise in Mozambique, health authorities said on Friday. According to the health ministry’s weekly Epidemiology bulletin published on Tuesday, 96 people died from the disease this week compared to 64 from the previous week.
An official report into an explosion last month that ripped apart Mozambique’s main armoury and killed 119 people has blamed the tragedy on poor storage conditions, the Presidency said on Thursday. Apart from the 119 fatalities, about 500 others were injured when the massive stockpile blew up.
Mozambique’s government is considering a proposal by a group of United States businessmen to build a ,3-billion oil refinery in the Southern African country. The proposed refinery at Nacala would be the first of its kind in Mozambique, which has relied entirely on imports of oil products.
The Mozambican government will pay disability grants of up to R500 per month to victims of last month’s Malhazine armoury blasts, Vista News reports. Government spokesperson Luis Covane told independent television channel STv on Wednesday that the grants will be paid after an assessment to ascertain the degree of injury.
Ten people who lost limbs in the Mozambique armoury explosions last month are still in Maputo Central Hospital, unsure what is going to happen to them, Vista News reported on Tuesday. The independent television channel STv broadcast images of the injured, mainly women and children.
Tuberculosis cases are rising rapidly in the Mozambican coastal town of Beira, according to local doctors.
Mozambican authorities were making arrangements on Tuesday for a number of children who were severely injured and traumatised in the recent explosions at a Maputo armoury to travel to South Africa for further treatment. Official figures say 101 people were killed and more than 500 were injured in the blasts at the country’s main military armoury.
A delegation of Zimbabwean human rights lawyers is in Mozambique to seek support from civil society in that country to pressure Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to introduce political reforms, Vista News reports. This was revealed by Radio Mozambique in a report on Tuesday quoting the leader of the Zimbabwean lawyers’ delegation, Tafadzwa Mugabe.
Last week’s blasts at the Malhazine armoury in Mozambique were due to a robbery that went wrong, military sources told an independent newspaper on Monday. In its Monday edition, Tribuna Fax, quoting anonymous military sources, said the blasts came after officials, who were stealing mercury, failed to tightly close containers.
The death toll in Thursday’s explosions at a Maputo armoury has reached 100 while about 500 people were injured. Mozambique Health Minister Ivo Garrido said the number could increase as some victims were still in critical condition at Maputo central hospital.
Thousands of people fled their homes in Maputo on Friday, fearing fresh explosions from the smoking wreckage of Mozambique’s largest armoury as emergency workers stockpiled bodies and missile shells. Ninety-six people died in the explosions on Thursday evening and about 400 were injured.
The death toll from blasts at a military armoury in Mozambique’s capital Maputo triggered by high temperatures had risen to 72, Health Minister Ivo Paulo Garido said on Friday. The blasts began on Thursday. President Armando Guebuza called off a visit to South Africa on Friday because of the disaster.
Buildings in the Maputo city centre shook on Thursday afternoon as Mozambique’s national armoury went up in smoke for the second time since 1985, Vista News reported. Windows were shattered at the University of Eduardo Mondlane’s students’ canteen on Paul S Kankhomba Avenue.
More than 18-million cubic metres of wood are indiscriminately cut down in Mozambique, mainly for firewood, each year, Vista News reported on Thursday. This was according to a report presented on Thursday by Mario Falcao, a researcher at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, at a debate on the state of the country’s forests held in Maputo.
Thousands of people living in the coastal towns and cities of Mozambique have been displaced by Indian Ocean high sea tides that swept into residential and commercial areas this week, news reports said on Thursday. The same phenomenon had sent massive waves slamming into the South African coastline earlier this week.
More than 20 Mozambican drug mules serving time in Brazil will soon be transferred to finish their sentences in Mozambique, thanks to the recent approval of a prison transfer agreement, Vista News reported on Tuesday. This was revealed by Justice Minister Esperanca Machavela in an interview published this week.
Sandra Alberto was heavily pregnant when Cyclone Favio struck Mozambique earlier this month, ripping the zinc roof off the house she and her two children had taken refuge in. "I grabbed hold of my children because I thought the wind would blow them away," she said. "Roofs and other objects were flying all over the place."
A Mozambican NGO has managed to collect more than 800Â 000 weapons used in the country’s 16-year civil war, Vista News reported on Tuesday. This was revealed by the head of the Mozambican Christian Council’s Transforming Swords into Ploughshares project, Bishop Dinis Sengulane, in a report published by Radio Mozambique.
Press freedom improved in Mozambique in 2006 as compared with previous years, a new human rights report has found, Vista News said on Wednesday. The report, released on Wednesday in Maputo, said that while media institutions reported that freedom of speech and the press had improved, police continued to harass journalists in 2006.
South Africa has made available three helicopters to help transport provisions and to monitor refugee centres accommodating flood victims in the Zambezi Valley, Vista News reported on Monday. Radio Mozambique said the helicopters were expected to arrive in Caia district, more than 1Â 000km north of Maputo, on Tuesday.
Mozambican marines rescued more than 1Â 700 people, including 900 children, from flooding in central Mozambique on Friday. The marines used eight boats to mount the rescue operation in the central town of Buzi in the province of Sofala, where at least 28Â 000 people have been affected by the floods.