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Q&A: How Illegal Chinese Logging Fuels the Islamic Insurgency in Mozambique

by Cliff Mboya
File image of members of the Mozambican Forestry Police stop and search a truck which is alleged to have illegal wood hidden. JOHN WESSELS / AFP

This Spring’s crackdown on illegal mining activities in Ghana, including by some Chinese nationals, and the recent high-profile incidents of illicit mining by Chinese companies in the eastern DR Congo have put a spotlight on the issue of unregulated Chinese resource extraction in other African states, including Mozambique.

But the focus in Mozambique isn’t illegally mining gold and other minerals, it’s timber.

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