The mayor of Quelimane, Manuel de Araújo, told Lusa on Wednesday that the first pandemic that Mozambique faced was the scandal of the hidden debts, whose effects will be felt for "another two or three years"..

"We have had challenges because of covid-19, we had many adversities and difficulties because of the pandemic, it was difficult to make partnerships, but covid-19 was the second pandemic, the first was the hidden debts, which greatly affected the way the world sees Mozambique," Manuel de Araújo said in an interview with Lusa in Carcavelos, on the outskirts of Lisbon.

"The partners still have some difficulties in conceiving partnerships at medium and small levels, unlike the big gas and mineral multinationals, which do not care about the image of the country, in fact the big multinationals never stopped investing in Nigeria and South Africa even in the time of `apartheid' [racial segregation], but the small and medium enterprises are very sensitive and we in the local government face many difficulties and feel the impact of the hidden debts because the cooperation partners have stopped supporting the budget," he said.

Manuel de Araújo was speaking on the sidelines of his participation in the Novafrica 2022 Conference on Economic Development, in Carcavelos, municipality of Cascais.

For the mayor of Quelimane, the suspension of budget aid given by international institutions and donors, following the disclosure, in April 2016, of debts of public companies contracted with the State's guarantee, but without internal or external disclosure, worth more than a billion dollars, greatly affected the municipalities.

"The State Budget, with no external component, was very small, and the poor relation in the distribution of what little there was was was the local governments, so we suffered in two ways the effects of the hidden debts and, as if that wasn't enough, we still had two years of covid," lamented the mayor.

Asked whether the distrust in the country is now over, six years after the first news story about the loans, published in April 2016 by the Wall Street Journal, Manuel de Araújo answered no.

"[The partners] haven't gotten over it yet, it's a process, it's only now that the World Bank has agreed to come back, a month ago, and that's going to have a positive effect, but for that to come down to the level of small and medium enterprises, it's going to take one or two or three years," said the mayor, for whom the situation in Cabo Delgado also acts as a constraint on investment in the country.

"I have in Quelimane some businessmen with enterprises in Cabo Delgado province who have returned and abandoned their investments, for example in restaurants and services, especially now, with this latest attack in Metoro, 50 kilometers from Pemba, a city where you need a military column to get in and out," explained the mayor.

Considering that Mozambique is a country that is very visible in the media because of its entry to the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member, its large gas reserves, and the announcement by Tesla of its interest in the country's graffiti, Manuel de Araújo admitted that this potentiates terrorist action.

"This makes Mozambique much more appetizing for terrorist ideology attacks, and the country was not prepared, you have to realize that an attack in Mozambique today has greater [news] coverage than before because it is in the Security Council and Tesla, the company of the future, said it wants to buy the country's graphite," Manuel de Araújo said.

"The budget to support the terrorists will increase and so will the level of attacks, this week there was the first attack in Nampula, and with that there are already three provinces affected, Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula now," he concluded.