Attacks on critical infrastructure: Mozambique
Mozambique's economic future is tied to major energy infrastructure (above all the offshore gas and onshore LNG developments of the far north) set against a backdrop of insurgency in Cabo Delgado. Protecting fixed, high-value installations that sit in a contested and remote province is one of the most consequential security tasks the state faces.
Guarding fixed value in a contested province
Infrastructure hardening protects the physical installations (plant, pipelines, power and the sites that support them) against sabotage and stand-off attack, while counter-UAS addresses the growing threat of small drones used to scout or strike a fixed target. Defensive cybersecurity shields the control systems that run modern energy facilities, where a network intrusion can be as damaging as a physical one. Treated as one problem, they close the physical, aerial and digital paths to a high-value site.
Energy security meets insurgency
What makes Mozambique distinctive is the overlap of world-scale energy investment with an active insurgency in the same province, so infrastructure protection compounds directly with counter-terrorism and remote-area-operations. The installations are remote, the ground around them contested, and the confidence of international investors hinges on visible, credible security. A capability that protects the site and helps sustain forces around it addresses both the asset and its environment.
How engagement works in Mozambique
Unstrat engages as an independent, non-aligned prime vendor: direct manufacturer representation, end-use certified, one accountable team from specification through in-region sustainment. Because the hardening, counter-drone and cyber layers come from makers with no political agenda, the protection of nationally-critical energy assets stays under Mozambican control, with no foreign veto, important where multiple external partners already have interests in the province. We would prioritise the installations whose loss would be most damaging and build toward capability Mozambican teams sustain. Book a briefing to scope it.
Securing high-value assets in a contested province
An engagement opens with a briefing that ranks the installations whose loss would be most damaging: the plant, pipelines and support sites of the northern energy developments set against an active insurgency. Before any representation is offered, export-control clearance and end-use approvals are confirmed, so the hardening, counter-drone and cyber layers are matched to a use Mozambique has authorised, with protection kept under national control. Capability is then fitted to real conditions: defence against sabotage and stand-off attack, the small drones that scout a fixed target, and the control systems a network intrusion can cripple. Sustainment proceeds in phases, with localisation arrangements scoped per programme, subject to export controls and end-use approvals, so Mozambican teams sustain it. The aim is a protective advantage that reassures investors and secures the asset without ceding control to any external partner already active in the province.
Relevant capability
Critical infrastructure resilience
Capability page →
Monitoring and incident response
Capability page →
Layered defence against the drone threat
Capability page →Adjacent priorities in Mozambique
Ministries, registries and national databases are under continuous attack from criminal and state-linked actors. Around-the-clock defensive operations, authorised red-teaming and architectures for disconnected environments protect the systems a state runs on, accountable to your government, not a foreign one.
Problem pageCheap unmanned aircraft now threaten airports, energy sites, borders and public events in every region. Layered counter-UAS, combining detection radar tuned to small slow targets, passive sensing and defeat systems, is the affordable answer recent conflicts demand.
Problem pageTapping, bunkering and sabotage of oil infrastructure drain national revenue and cause environmental damage. Persistent overhead surveillance detects illegal connections and vessel movements, while control-system hardening protects the pipeline network itself.
Problem pageRelevant solutions
Power, water, transport and port systems assessed, hardened and watched continuously, by a team with no foreign government to report the findings to.
Solution page →Layered defence against hostile unmanned aircraft: detection, tracking and defeat priced for the mass threat rather than a missile economy that empties the magazine first.
Solution page →Mozambique: security context
Mozambique's priorities meet along its coast and in its north: protecting gas infrastructure, addressing a counter-insurgency requirement, and watching its exclusive economic zone. It is an environment where energy security and frontier operations are tightly linked.
One accountable, non-aligned partner gives Mozambique a coherent counterpart for those priorities: gas-infrastructure protection, counter-insurgency support and EEZ surveillance through a single channel. A security agency gains end-use certified equipment, in-region sustainment and localisation arrangements scoped per programme.
About this challenge
Power grids, water systems and transport networks face both physical and cyber attack. Hardening the control systems behind them, defending the networks around them and countering the drone threat above them keeps essential services running under pressure.
Frequently asked questions
How is Mozambique's northern gas infrastructure protected against attack?
By closing the physical, aerial and digital paths together. Infrastructure hardening protects the installations against sabotage and stand-off attack, counter-UAS defeats small drones used to scout or strike them, and defensive cybersecurity shields the control systems. A briefing can map the priority sites.
Why does protecting energy sites in Cabo Delgado differ from elsewhere?
Because world-scale energy investment overlaps with an active insurgency in the same remote province. Infrastructure protection there compounds with counter-terrorism and the challenge of sustaining forces around the sites, so the capability must address the asset and its contested environment together.
Does investor confidence depend on visible security?
Yes. International investment in Mozambican energy hinges on credible, visible protection of the assets. A nationally-owned, non-aligned capability provides that assurance without ceding control to any external partner. We can walk through the phased approach in a briefing.