Mozambique denies Beirut blast link

Mozambican port authorities have denied any links to a ship carrying the cargo of ammonium nitrate said to have caused the devastating explosion in Beirut. This followed claims that the ammonium nitrate had arrived in Lebanon in 2013 on board a Moldovan-flagged ship sailing from Georgia and bound for the central port city of Beira. ‘The port operator was not aware that the vessel MV Rhosus would dock at the port of Beira,’ the Beira ports authority said in a statement. A report on the News24 site notes that typically the arrival of any ship at the port ‘is announced by the ship's agent to the port operator seven to 15 days in advance’. However, a senior ports official reportedly told AFP that ‘although the destination of the ship was the port of Beira, the final destination of the cargo was not Mozambique but Zimbabwe or Zambia, because ammonium nitrate is used to manufacture explosive materials used in the mining industry’.

However, a Portuguese-owned firm in Mozambique yesterday confirmed ordering the ammonium nitrate. Fabrica de Explosivos de Mocambique (Fem) was quoted as saying that it was a ‘normal order’, which complied with legal requirements. BBC News reports that the order was placed with a Georgian firm in 2013, and the ammonium nitrate was to have been shipped to Beira. The seizure of the cargo by Lebanese authorities prompted it to order another shipment, Fem was quoted as saying.