Skepticism stems from ignorance of details of Nyusi's meetings in France

The president of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, says he is satisfied with Mozambique's gains in the meetings he had this week in France, particularly with regard to more concrete security issues in Cabo Delgado and the resumption of the natural gas exploration project in Afungi, led by Total.

But, as no details of such meetings have been made public, there is some skepticism in Mozambican civil society.

Journalist Fernando Lima says he is cautious about the results achieved by the Mozambican statesman during his trip to France, "because all the declarations, except the ones about Mozambique, are very cautious; there is a vague promise of resumption without any deadline, either from Techniq or Total, and, therefore, it is important to know these details".

A contrary opinion is held by researcher Borges Nhamirre, who believes that Filipe Nyusi would get two specific things from France: Support for fighting the insurgency, but in the terms that Mozambique wants and not in the terms that the partners want; and guarantees of Total's continuity in the gas project.

Conditionalisms

"He comes back with those guarantees, which, however, come with conditionalities. As far as support for the fight against the insurgency, I think the French will give full support, but they will want to put their men in Mozambique, because they themselves, need to understand the insurgency to be able to fight it," Nhamirre said.

Nhamirre stressed that "there is not complete trust between the Government of Mozambique and the Government of France, so the French will want to put their men here to try to understand the dynamics of the insurgency, and that is precisely what Mozambique does not want.

Regarding Total, Nhamirre said that "the president (Nyusi) comes back with the assurance that the company will only resume its work, when the security conditions are created."