Mozambique’s Estacio Valoi faces ‘clear intimidation’ over environmental reporting

New York, June 17, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Mozambican authorities to return the equipment of prominent investigative journalist Estacio Valoi and to end the intimidation of reporters covering environmental crimes and conflict in northern Cabo Delgado province.

On June 16, three National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) agents went to Valoi’s home in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, served him with a judicial order, and confiscated his phones, computers, and tablets, the journalist told CPJ. The May 25 search warrant issued by Pemba City Judicial Court, reviewed by CPJ, did not detail why Valoi’s personal and work equipment was being seized. 

Valoi said in December that he was facing a “coordinated offensive” of intimidation over his reporting on timber smuggling in Cabo Delgado where the government has been fighting an Islamic State-linked insurgency since 2017.

“Journalists in Cabo Delgado already face extraordinary risks reporting on conflict, corruption and environmental crimes without adding judicial harassment to their safety fears,” said CPJ Africa Director Angela Quintal. “Mozambican authorities must return Estacio Valoi’s equipment that is essential to his work and ensure journalists can do their jobs freely and safely. 

Valoi, who has reported for over a decade on natural resource issues, is editor of the news site Moz24h, which is known for its coverage of corruption, conflict, and environmental crimes in Mozambique.

Valoi said one of the officers who seized his equipment on June 16 told him that the judge wanted him to remove an August 2025 report about the seizure of illegal timber exports belonging to Safi Timber. The article was one of several reports by Valoi about the plunder of Cabo Delgado’s Quirimbas National Park, which has been nominated for United Nations world heritage status. 

On April 23, the  general prosecutor declared Valoi an arguido, a Portuguese legal term meaning a formal suspect and often a preliminary step before an arrest or formal charge, the journalist’s lawyer, Augusto Messariamba, told CPJ. Messariamba said the designation followed a criminal defamation complaint by Safi Timber against Valoi and Moz 24h over the August 2025 article.

Although Mozambique allows for defamation cases to be addressed via civil  proceedings, Safi Timber chose to file a criminal complaint, which could result in Valoi being jailed for up to one year if convicted, Messariamba said, adding that authorities had not yet set a date for further questioning.

‘Clear intimidation’ aimed at taking down report 

Valoi told CPJ that the latest action followed months of pressure from Safi Timber to take the article down, including through intermediaries.

“This clear intimidation comes after several attempts at behind-the-scenes contact by the company, which refused to respond to Moz24h’s comment requests before publishing the piece,” Valoi told CPJ.

On December 24, Valoi’s lawyer and several media outlets received emails, calls, and messages from Safi Timber’s lawyers demanding that Valoi withdraw the article or face legal action, the journalist said.

“The objective was clear: to create an atmosphere of pressure, fear and urgency, typical of so-called SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), strategic legal actions designed not to win on merit, but to silence, wear down and intimidate,” Valoi wrote at the time.  

CPJ has reported numerous press violations in Cabo Delgado. In 2018, the military detained Valoi and a colleague for two days, questioned, and threatened them, confiscated their cameras and phones, and searched their computers. 

CPJ has been calling for credible investigations into the disappearances of journalists Ibraimo Mbaruco, who in 2020 texted a colleague that he was “surrounded by soldiers,” and of Arlindo Chissale, who has not been seen since 2025, when eight men, some in uniform, took him from a bus in Cabo Delgado.    

The general prosecutor’s spokesperson in Cabo Delgado, Gilroy Fazenda, told CPJ by phone on the morning of June 17 that he would call back, but he did not respond by the end of the day. 

CPJ’s calls to request comment from Safi Timber went unanswered.

Editor’s note: The caption has been corrected to fix the spelling on the photo credit.