Why waste a crisis?

Under the pressure of scandal and renewed conflict, Mozambique’s government is keener than ever to speed up its gas-export project

Mozambique has dropped off the map of investors' favourite frontier markets. It's been a rough year for commodity exporters everywhere, and an especially tough one for southeast Africa, which has been hit by a serious drought. But Mozambique's fall from grace has its own drivers that are impossible to overlook. The first is a return to armed civil conflict. This year is shaping up to be the worst for fighting between the government and opposition group Renamo since a 1992 agreement put an end to their 16-year civil war. International mediators have now joined negotiations in the capital, Maputo, but the conflict-which remains sporadic and low-level-has, if anything, worsened. On top of droug