Maputo, 16 Apr (AIM) – Members of the peasant militia, known as the Naparamas, on Wednesday joined a group of people protesting against the work carried out by the company Twigg Exploration and Mining Ltd at a graphite mine in Balama district, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado.
Twigg Exploration & Mining, which is a subsidiary of Syrah Resources Limited, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), has been exploiting graphite in Balama. However, the company is accused by the local residents of not giving proper compensation to those who were displaced by the project last September.
The protesters, according to the independent daily “O País”, are demanding fair compensation for the land occupied and the dismissal of workers without just cause. As a result of the impasse, the Naparamas took control of the area to prevent any attempt to reopen the mine before a solution is reached.
In order to solve the problem, the Cabo Delgado provincial governor, Valige Tauabo, met with the local communities affected by the mining project, but there was no consensus to allow mining to resume.
This was the third time that Tauabo had tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the communities affected by the project to reopen the mine, which has been closed for almost seven months.
The Naparamas first came to prominence in the late 1980s, during the war of destabilisation, when they were defending peasant communities in Nampula and the neighbouring province of Zambezia against the then rebel movement Renamo. At that time, they were in an informal alliance with the Mozambican Armed Forces (FAM/FPLM).
After the 1992 peace agreement between the government and Renamo, little more was heard of the Naparamas until recently. But they have suddenly reappeared, and are posing a real threat to Mozambican state bodies.
The Naparamas use magical rituals, which they claim make them invulnerable to bullets (even though their first leader, Manuel Antonio, died in a hail of Renamo bullets in 1990).
(AIM)
Ad/pf (331)
