Mozambique: former finance minister will be extradited to the US

The former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang, currently detained in South Africa, will be extradited to the US.

The former government official is accused of corruption in the case of secret loans that plunged the country into its worst financial crisis in 2016.

The announcement took place on Wednesday in South Africa.

Manuel Chang is also accused of having received millions of euros in bribes during the ten-year period he spent in office between 2005 and 2015.

The former minister was arrested in December 2018 in South Africa while in transit to Dubai.

The current President Filipe Nyusi, then Minister of Defence, was also named in several testimonies.

In total there are 19 defendants, all close to the government, suspected of being involved in the scandal uncovered in 2016.