The Ematum Deal in Mozambique

In 2013, Mozambique borrowed $850 million through a public-private special purpose vehicle called Ematum, ostensibly to finance the purchase of a tuna fishing fleet. It soon emerged that much of the money had been used to buy military equipment - but it remains unclear how much. There are strong suspicions that some of the missing money may have been used to arm the military for a land offensive against opposition forces, resulting in human rights abuses against civilians, which appear to have been covered up.

A team of Mozambican, Swiss and British journalists set out to find out how much of the money is still unaccounted for, whether it has been spent on weapons, and what the human cost of the armed violence is, which seems to be getting worse by the day.

The first of three articles is based on interviews with communities affected by recent violence between government and opposition forces. The official narrative in Mozambique is that the opposition party Renamo is responsible for the violence against civilians, but the testimony the team heard during its investigation puts the blame on government forces and shows that government forces are primarily responsible and that human rights abuses are systematic and take place throughout Mozambique. The team also uncovered evidence that an assassination attempt on the leader of the main opposition party was carried out by government forces, despite government denials.

Photo © Nicolas Raymond