Telephone system: general assessment: fair system but not available generally (telephone density is only 16 telephones for each 1,000 persons) domestic: the system consists of open-wire lines and trunk connection by microwave radio relay and tropospheric scatter international: satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 3 Indian Ocean)
Radio broadcast stations: AM 13, FM 17, shortwave 11 (2001)
The first European to reach Mozambique was Vasco da Gama in 1498, and the country became a Portuguese colony in 1505.
From 1980 Mozambique was faced with widespread drought, which affected most of southern Africa, and attacks by mercenaries under the banner of the Mozambique National Resistance (MNR) – also known as Renamo – who were covertly but strongly backed by South Africa.
Mozambique's economic problems were aggravated in 1987 by food shortages, after another year of drought.
The principal ethnic groups are, in the north, the Yao, Makonde, and Makua; in the center, the Thonga, Chewa, Nyanja, and Sena; and in the south, the Shona and Tonga.
Mozambique also derives income from handling foreign trade for nearby countries; goods are shipped on rail lines that terminate at the ports of Maputo, Nacala, and Lumbo (near Moçambique); the rail line to the port of Beira is in disrepair.
In 1992, Mozambique suffered from one of the worst droughts of the century and from the widespread famine that ensued.
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