National security expenditure in Cabo Delgado reaches over 100 billion meticais

Maputo, 17 Nov (AIM) – The expenditure of the Defence and Security Forces (FDS) in the fight against terrorists in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado reached about 106.8 billion meticais (1.7 billion US dollars, at the current exchange rate) from 2018 to 2022, according to the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP).

According to a report by the organization, entitled “Revealing the Costs of War in Cabo Delgado”, presented on Wednesday, “in addition to human rights violations and the displacement of over a million people, the conflict significantly overburdens Mozambique’s fiscal resources.”

According to CIP researcher, Rui Mate, in the period under consideration, Security and Public Order consumed 60.4 billion meticais (about 940 million dollars) and Defense 43.6 billion meticais (673 million dollars).

“In addition to the fiscal implications, the delays due to the conflict at the Mozambique LNG gas project operated by TotalEnergies result in an estimated loss of 383.4 billion meticais (6.06 billion dollars) in potential government revenue under current market conditions”, said the researcher.

Collectively, these additional national security expenditures related to the conflict and the lost revenues from the gas project total approximately 490.2 billion meticais (7.75 billion dollars).

The study also revealed that the conflict has had an adverse impact on education. The conflict-induced increase in illiteracy contributes to an estimated loss of 22.7 billion meticais to Cabo Delgado’s regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We see that in general terms, before 2018, security expenditure was around 2.94 billion meticais a year. After 2018, we saw that there was an additional increase of around 8.08 billion, after the start of the conflict in Cabo Delgado. It means that there is a drastic change here in the allocation

(AIM)

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