'Donors' Darling' Mozambique Looks Less Loveable after Attacks

This gap is even greater for the expected bonanza from development of liquefied national gas (LNG), forecast by experts to be a "revenue game-changer" for Mozambique, which languishes near the bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index.

UNICEF's Senior Social Policy Specialist in Maputo, Lisa Kurbiel, said this should be a "transformational opportunity" to tackle badly lagging education and health indicators - about 44 percent of Mozambique's children suffer from stunted growth, one of the highest rates in the world.

But a survey of Mozambique's Rovuma Basin gas prospects prepared for the U.N. children's agency cautions that the high investment levels and long time needed for LNG development mean "it is nearly impossible for gas exports to begin before 2019".

Unfulfilled expectations, coupled with the spreading malaise of corruption and a flawed electoral democracy, could pose more of a short-term threat to Mozambique's peace than the actions of a former rebels with reduced political support.

Bobole resident Salvador Zandamela, 75, who lost two sons aged 12 and 15 in the civil war, said he still had nightmares about marauding gunmen "hunting people like animals".

"So when I hear that things could be starting again, I'm afraid," he told Reuters, carrying a hoe for tilling his fields.


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