MOGOVOLAS, NAMPULA
The events that took place in Marraca, in Mogovolas District, Nampula Province, in December 2025 were not an isolated incident, but rather the result of structural failures in the governance of artisanal mining in Mozambique. The overlap between private mining concessions and local subsistence economies, the absence of effective formalisation policies, and the predominance of securitised responses created conditions conducive to violence.
The Marraca case reveals a recurring pattern: socioeconomic conflicts linked to subsistence livelihoods are treated as public order issues. The securitisation of artisanal mining replaces civilian governance mechanisms with armed interventions, fails to eliminate artisanal mining, and deepens mistrust between communities and the State, thereby reproducing cycles of violence.
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