{{Mining company Rio Tinto (RIO.L)(RIO.AX) has suspended coal shipments from northwest Mozambique after the opposition Renamo party, a former guerrilla group, threatened to disrupt the Sena railway “coal corridor” to the Indian Ocean}}.
Although no attacks have been reported on the line, which snakes through 600 km (375 miles) of jungle from the coal fields in Tete province to the port of Beira, gunmen killed at least two people in ambushes on main roads in the region this week.
The attacks started two days after a public declaration of hostilities by Renamo last week that raised fears of a return to civil war in the southern African nation, two decades after the end of a 16-year conflict in which one million people died.
“We have paused our operations on the rail line while we assess the current situation in Mozambique,” Rio Tinto said in a statement.
Production at the company’s Benga mine was continuing, it added.
Brazilian rival Vale (VALE5.SA), which is investing $4 billion in coal mines near Tete and is the main user of the Sena line, said it was still using the track but had increased security.
“We are alert, observing the events, avoiding unnecessary exposure in zones of potential conflict and interacting with other companies looking to obtain the best information possible,” Vale said in a statement.
Rio’s decision is the first concrete sign of economic fallout from the campaign by Renamo, which says it has missed out on an economic boom in the last decade based on massive foreign investment in the coal sector and off-shore natural gas.
The former guerrilla movement, founded in the mid-1970s with the backing of white-ruled Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, is demanding political reforms, including a shake-up of the election commission, as a condition for halting its attacks.
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