(Reuters) – Precious stones miner Gemfields Group on Tuesday said it has halted operations and was evacuating personnel from its Nairoto exploration camp in Mozambique’s insurgent-hit Cabo Delgado province after an attack on a nearby village.
The northern Mozambican province has seen an Islamic State-linked insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since it broke out in 2017, disrupting multibillion-dollar natural gas and mining projects.
“Shortly before midnight on Sunday, 12 February 2023, an attack attributed to insurgents took place in the village of Nairoto in the Cabo Delgado province of Mozambique. The village of Nairoto lies approximately 15 kilometres (9.32 miles) south west of the exploration camp in which Gemfields owns 75%,” the company said in a statement.
The attacked village is about 83 kilometres (52 miles) north of Gemfields’ flagship Montepuez ruby mine, which has not been impacted and remains operational, the company said.
Last October, Gemfields suspended operations at Montepuez for five days after an attack was reported at a nearby ruby mine.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Alex Richardson)
