The forced displacement of hundreds of rural families has occurred since Cabo Delgado’s gas reserves were discovered in 2007 to make way for the LNG onshore facilities including the Afungi LNG Park. This figure stood at 556 families by March 2020, which is expected to rise to thousands of displaced families as the area’s various LNG projects progress. A 2014 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by Anadarko – the former majority shareholder of the Mozambique LNG Project, which is planned for the same region – states that those living in the Afungi Project Site will be permanently displaced. In 2019, an African Development Bank Group report estimated that 2,700 people live there. Locals will also lose access to collective natural resources including forests, floodplains and grasslands.

Loss of livelihoods: the forced displacement also deprives many of livelihoods. Local agriculture and fishing has long provided sustenance and trade. However, fishing communities have been moved 10 kilometres inland and people have been compensated with much smaller plots of land compared to their old plots. The literacy rate in the region is very low, which severely limits formal employment opportunities for those being displaced.

Major community health impacts are predicted by the 2014 EIA (page 17), which will occur due to an influx of project workers into the area. For example, there will be a rise in the transmission of diseases such as COVID-19, which has already occurred in areas impacted by the Mozambique LNG project. The project is also expected to generate huge amounts of sulphur dioxide pollution.

Social unrest and militarisation of the Cabo Delgado region: the growth of the fossil fuel industry in the region and its impacts on local communities who continue to live in poverty, together with unmet political and corporate promises, has fuelled social unrest. This social unrest has led to insurgent attacks. Insurgents deliberately kill civilians, loot their homes, burn villages and towns and commit atrocities such as beheadings.

An Islamist insurgency dating back to 2018 triggered a security deal between TotalEnergies and the Mozambican authorities, in relation to the former’s Mozambique LNG Project. To protect LNG interests, the government provides troops who intimidate and mistreat local communities. Widespread destruction, mass displacement and death has caused untenable humanitarian conditions for the hundreds of thousands who have fled and are now refugees.

The suppression of journalism has increased in Cabo Delgado as a direct consequence of the gas region’s increased militarisation. Reporters have been detained, or simply gone missing. More information can be found on the profile of the Mozambique LNG project.

The project’s own 2014 EIA (page 14) estimates that once the pipeline is operational, it will increase Mozambique's global contribution to greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10% per year. According to the International Energy Agency, any expansion of fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with a pathway to limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C and therefore with net zero by 2050 commitments.

Construction damage and depletion of biodiversity: construction activities will disrupt Palma Bay’s seagrass, coral reefs and the organisms that depend on them, caused by the dredging of the area. Dredging, as well as cutting, also leads to the deposit of sediments on these fauna, which can take a lot of time to recover. The anticipated increase in noise pollution will adversely affect fish, dolphins, turtles and whales. This assault on the area’s biodiversity will also be felt at the onshore Afungi construction site, where the disturbance of wetland areas will affect reptiles, amphibians and birds. Finally, the area’s topsoil will suffer losses during the construction phase. Each of these consequences is acknowledged in the 2014 Environmental Impact Assessment.

The LNG projects are located in an area with unique and vulnerable ecosystems important for biodiversity such as mangrove forests, coral reefs and seagrass beds, including the Quirimbas National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This biodiverse group of islands spans the Cabo Delgado coast and is home to endemic plants, a rich marine ecosystem including turtles, dolphins and sharks, and a range of land animals such as lions, elephants and leopards. More information can be found on the profile of the Mozambique LNG project.