On March 24 2021, Agostinho Carlos was sitting in the bustling marketplace in Palma, a small coastal town in northern Mozambique, when a convoy of pick-up trucks drove by. At first, he assumed they were providing security for the huge gas facilities being constructed by TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil some 10 kilometres along the coast.

But he was wrong. “A bunch of them got out, screaming, ‘Allahu akbar,’ and started shooting at everyone,” says Carlos. As he watched, the militants, who called themselves al-Shabaab, beheaded their captives with machetes. The violence went on for four days. According to estimates by the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, over 800 people were killed in what became the worst terrorist attack in Mozambique’s history.

Beyond the grim human toll, the attacks also put a stop to the fossil fuel investments that many hoped would transform Mozambique’s economic fortunes.