Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Thursday to help Mozambique counter a jihadist insurgency in the north of the country.
Mozambique’s northernmost gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado is battling an insurgency led by militants linked to the Islamic State group.
“Japan will help financially in the fight against terrorism,” Kishida said at a news conference in the capital Maputo, the latest stop on his Africa tour.
“Security is paramount for the operations of Japanese companies in the north of the country,” he added.
Mozambique has placed high hopes on vast natural gas deposits – the largest discovered south of the Sahara – found in the Muslim-majority northern province in 2010.
If all the fields are exploited, Mozambique could become one of the world’s top ten gas exporting countries, according to estimates.
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