The airfield in the village of Mocímboa da Praia in northern Mozambique reopens non-scheduled international flights today to support the region’s natural gas investments, a government source said.

The two-kilometer track is just a few minutes’ journey by land or sea from the peninsula of Afungi, Palma, where in the next five to six years an industrial liquefied gas production area must be born to be exported on cargo ships worldwide.

The transportation of equipment is one of the objectives of today’s opening, which follows the authorization for use of the aerodrome for international flights assigned by the Mozambican government in December.

The license was granted after work to adapt the space to world safety standards.

That area of the province of Cabo Delgado is mainly dedicated to the primary sector with a large part of the population distributed by villages in the bush and without infrastructures.

The consortium for the exploration of natural gas is led by US oil company Anadarko that prompted the end of 2017 to start the process of resettlement of residents where the new industrial zone will be erected.

Mocímboa da Praia and its surroundings were the scene of clashes between groups of armed men and security forces between October and January, but without clarifying what was behind the violence.