"Who Will Benefit from East Africa's Oil and Gas?" 24 July 2012

In the small village of Mikindani on the south-eastern coast of Tanzania...John, 15, points to the four ships in the distance. “They’re all here because of the oil and gas”, he says. “Sometimes the wazungu [foreign staff] come in on helicopters. They’re not allowed to meet us; there’s a ten-mile exclusion zone around their compounds in case they get kidnapped.” Like millions of teenagers mired in poverty across East Africa, John harbours dreams of change; to escape from the under-developed, politically-marginalised area he calls home, and for a better life for himself and his family...An elder of the village tells Think Africa Press, “Unemployment is a massive problem, only 8-10% of us work, and we are desperate…our problem is the government is over 650 km away in Dar es Salaam – they have abandoned us, they have no interest...When the jobs come with the gas, then they give the jobs to outsiders, either from other areas of the mainland, or to Zambians, to Kenyans. Not to us. The gas here they will export to other areas, and here we will still be left without the basics.”...Without increased transparency and concern both for the environment and those communities most affected by oil and gas exploration, the coastal communities and perhaps ordinary East Africans may rue the day the precious resource was discovered. That is now the challenge for governments, companies, civil society groups and activists.