"Mtwara residents want government fulfill promises"

Residents of Mtwara Region have asked the government to turn the region into an industrial hub-the promise it made five years ago during President Jakaya Kikwete election campaign. They said the fact that many other places around the country with natural resources like gold, national parks and other attractions are lagging behind gives them proof that their region will not be a better off place as promised.

Amidan Chikomo, a resident in the region said the government has offered to them so many promises which include roads construction, schools, hospitals, industries, but the community is yet to see such development taking place, ten years down the line. Instead, he said the community has been left reeling in poverty, without such services and a shaky education system that lacks higher level secondary schools. “We have witnessed other regions with huge natural resources that include minerals where communities are yet to benefit and such areas remains to be the least developed in the country,” he said, adding “This situation worries us to think that development will ever be attained as promised”. [refers to Dangote Group]