Country profile · Southern Africa
Mozambique
Mozambique is a country of about 35 million people on the Indian Ocean coast of southern Africa, and one of the poorest in the world. Frelimo has ruled since independence from Portugal in 1975. President Daniel Chapo took office in January 2025 after a disputed election. Since 2017 an Islamic State insurgency in the north has killed more than 6,500 people.
Where Mozambique ranks
All rankings →Which alliances is Mozambique in?
All alliances →Who runs Mozambique?
Mozambique is a presidential republic. President Daniel Chapo was born in 1977 in Inhaminga, Sofala province. He is the sixth of ten children. He worked as a radio announcer and a TV news presenter, taught law, and served as governor of Inhambane province from 2016 to 2024. He is the first president born after independence. He took office on January 15, 2025. In the election of October 9, 2024, the Constitutional Council gave him 65% of the vote and Frelimo 171 of the 250 seats (chart). EU observers reported a serious lack of transparency in the count, and the Catholic bishops called the result a fraud. Venâncio Mondlane, who came second with 24%, led months of protests. Plataforma Decide, a monitoring group, counted 411 dead. Chapo and Mondlane met in March 2025 and agreed to end the violence. Mondlane now leads a new party, Anamola. His trial at the Supreme Court, on five charges including incitement to terrorism, opens on November 17, 2026.
- Frelimo 171
- Podemos 43
- Renamo 28
- MDM 8
Photo (November 2025): Ricardo Stuckert, Presidency of Brazil, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
Who are Mozambique's allies and rivals?
Rwanda has kept soldiers and police in Cabo Delgado since July 2021, when it sent 1,000. Rwanda says it now has more than 6,300 there, though other estimates are lower. The EU gave €40 million toward the Rwandan mission, but that money ended on May 31, 2026, and Mozambique says it now pays. Tanzania keeps about 300 troops near the border. South Africa supplies more than a quarter of Mozambique's imports, and its power company Eskom bought 66% of the electricity from the Cahora Bassa dam in 2024. Portugal, the former colonial power, leads an EU mission that has trained more than 1,600 Mozambican soldiers. China is the largest lender among governments, and President Daniel Chapo met Xi Jinping in Beijing in April 2026. Russia's Wagner Group fought in Cabo Delgado in 2019 and left after losses. In July 2026 Russia's foreign minister offered training and weapons. Mozambique sat on the UN Security Council for the first time in 2023 and 2024.
Allies and partners
RwandaTroops fighting the insurgents since 2021
South AfricaBiggest supplier; buys most Cahora Bassa power
PortugalFormer colonial power; leads EU training mission
ChinaLargest lender among governments
Threats
- Islamic State MozambiqueInsurgents in Cabo Delgado since 2017
- Afungi Site of the Mozambique LNG gas plant. Building restarted in January 2026, with about 10,000 workers by September.
- Mocímboa da Praia Port town held by insurgents from August 2020 until Rwandan and Mozambican troops retook it in August 2021.
- Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River. South Africa's Eskom bought 66% of its power in 2024.
- Mozal Aluminium smelter near Maputo. Shut since March 15, 2026 in a dispute over the price of power.
- Mozambique
- Partner
Who does Mozambique trade with?
Mozambique exported goods worth $7.8 billion in 2025 and imported $8.6 billion (central bank). India bought about a fifth of exports, mostly gas and coal (chart). South Africa supplied more than a quarter of imports. Natural gas passed coal as the biggest export in 2025. Aluminium from the Mozal smelter near Maputo earned a record $1.35 billion, about 17% of exports. Mozal shut on March 15, 2026 after a dispute over the price of its electricity. In 2016 the government admitted about $2 billion of secret state-guaranteed loans to three state companies, arranged by Credit Suisse. The IMF and donors cut off support, and a later study put the cost to Mozambique at $11 billion or more. Public debt was about 90% of GDP in 2025 (IMF). The state has delayed payments on some of its bonds at home, and in September 2026 Moody's and S&P cut its credit rating. About 82% of people live on less than $3 a day (World Bank).
Sells to
Share of Mozambique's exports
India20.6%- South Africa12.6%
United Kingdom8.3%- China8.2%
Singapore7.2%
Buys from
Share of Mozambique's imports
- South Africa27.7%
- China15.7%
United Arab Emirates8.2%- India6.5%
Oman4.5%
Goods, 2025, as reported by Mozambique. UN Comtrade.
Who is fighting in Cabo Delgado?
Cabo Delgado, Mozambique's northernmost province, has been at war since October 5, 2017, when insurgents attacked the town of Mocímboa da Praia. Local people call them al-Shabaab, but they have no link to the Somali group of that name. They joined the Islamic State in 2019. Researchers point to poverty, young men without work, and anger over ruby mining and gas projects that pushed people off their land. The insurgents held the port of Mocímboa da Praia from August 2020 until August 2021. In March 2021 they attacked the town of Palma. Counts of the dead there range from about 30 (government) to more than 1,000 (a journalist's survey). ACLED, a group that tracks conflicts, counted 6,570 deaths from 2017 to May 2026. Nearly a million people had fled their homes by mid-2022, and about 450,000 were still displaced in Cabo Delgado in mid-2026. The fighting has spread into Niassa and Nampula provinces. Attacks on civilians rose to 19 in September 2026, from 11 in August.
Why does Mozambique's gas matter?
Large gas fields lie under the sea off Cabo Delgado. Mozambique produced 12.2 billion cubic meters of gas in 2024 (chart). Coral South, a floating plant run by Italy's Eni, shipped its first liquefied natural gas on November 13, 2022. A second floating plant, Coral North, was approved in October 2025 and should start in 2028. The biggest project is Mozambique LNG, led by France's TotalEnergies. It costs about $20.5 billion and will make 13 million tonnes a year. Work stopped after the Palma attack in 2021. It restarted in full on January 29, 2026, and first gas is planned for 2029. ExxonMobil plans a decision on an even larger plant, Rovuma LNG, before the end of 2026. In 2024 Politico reported that Mozambican soldiers held, tortured and killed civilians in shipping containers at the gas site in 2021. TotalEnergies rejects the claims and says it had no staff at the site then.
Natural gas production in Africa, 2024
Full ranking →
US Energy Information Administration, International Energy Statistics