MAPUTO: The board of Mozambique’s national airline, LAM, has been sacked after the carrier cancelled flights this week because of financial difficulties that meant it could not pay for fuel, at one point marooning Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario.

State-controlled LAM said it was working to ensure flights resumed on Friday after the government intervention.

The war-scarred southern African nation sits on some of the world’s largest untapped natural gas reserves but has been cut off from multilateral and foreign donors after the government admitted to $1.4 billion of undisclosed borrowing in 2016.

Mozambique has been rocked by a spate of beheadings and kidnappings in recent months that have prompted international energy firms operating in the northern Cabo Delgado province to introduce added security measures.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2018