The rehabilitation of the port of Mocimboa da Praia, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which was recaptured from islamist terrorists in 2021, is expected to cost US$30 million.

"In this first phase we are talking about an investment of about six million dollars, but at the end of the entire development programme we have calculated a total of US$30 million", the port administrator, Helenio Turzao, told the Portuguese news agency, Lusa.

On the night of 12 August 2020, armed jihadist groups attacked the Mocimboa da Praia port. According to Turzao, the terrorists who occupied Mocimboa da Praia for several months devastated the entire port infrastructure along with the cargo of several customers that was on site.

Work on the port infrastructure, which includes the construction of a new quay and the rehabilitation of the container yard, began in August 2022 and is expected to end in July this year.

The work is reasonably secure, as the district is gradually reviving as a result of the joint operations of the Mozambican defence and security forces, and their allies from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

"The commercial and industrial fabric is already returning with some force, which means that there is already economic activity for the populations, who have been returning at a good pace', concluded Helenio Turzao.

After months in the hands of terrorists, Mocimboa da Praia was looted and almost all public and private infrastructure was destroyed, as well as power, water, communications and hospital systems. Almost the entire pre-war population of 62,000 fled from the town in the wake of terrorist attacks, although in recent months many of the displaced people have returned.

Mocimboa da Praia, located 70 kilometres south of the construction area of the natural gas liquefaction project in Afungi, Palma, led by the French company Total Energies, was the first district to suffer jihadist raids, in October 2017.