South African Man Accused of Aiding Mozambique Insurgents Dies

(Bloomberg) -- Andre Hanekom, a South African businessman whom Mozambican authorities accused of aiding an Islamist insurgency in the southeast African nation’s gas-rich north, died on Wednesday.

Hanekom, who ran a marina near where companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. have multi-billion dollar natural gas projects, died in hospital, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement, without providing details.

Hanekom was shot and arrested last year and had been in custody since. His wife Francis previously said he’s innocent and there’s no evidence he helped insurgents in Mozambique. She didn’t answer calls and text messages seeking comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Matthew Hill in Maputo at mhill58@bloomberg.net;Borges Nhamire in Maputo at bnhamire@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alastair Reed at areed12@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Hilton Shone

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