British project manager killed by ISIS-linked terrorists in RPG hotel escape, inquest hears

A British project manager was killed by an RPG fired by ISIS-linked terrorists as he desperately tried to escape a besieged hotel, an inquest heard.

Phillip Mawer, 59, had been trapped at the Amarula Hotel in Palma, Mozambique , after the area came under attack from the ISIS-linked terror group Al-Shabaab. He had declined a place on an evacuation the previous day, but as the situation worsened on March 26, he fled as part of a convoy.

Shortly after setting off, the vehicle he was travelling in was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing injuries which left him instantly unconscious and killed him.

Winchester Coroner’s Court heard Phillip, originally from Somerset, had been working as country manager for RA International as it prepared accommodation for workers connected to a major gas project in the region. The company provides construction and other services in challenging environments, which Phillip had worked across several African countries.

He had also spent around a decade doing business in Mozambique and had convinced RA International’s CEO Soraya Narfeldt that his knowledge and connections made him the right person for the job. The court heard terrorist activity in the area was already known before Phillip began working in Palma, although the threat had been assessed as low enough for the project to continue.

Staff had been evacuated in December 2020 following an order from the energy companies and Mozambique government, before the decision was reversed the following month and work resumed. Much of the terrorist activity in the region was linked to Al-Shabaab.

He was staying at the Amarula Hotel with his friend and fellow project manager Gordon Rhattigan when the attack began. Which Gordon said the pair had been working at the RA International site on March 24 when Phillip suggested returning to the hotel for lunch. However after Gordan declined he went alone.

Mr Rhattigan described what happened: “I had been working for RA for three years. 100 per cent we’d been aware of these issues since November. It hadn’t changed since December.

“From the time I got there and well before, Phil had been reporting from RA that there had been weekly attacks and on the outskirts of the village. There was an instance where they took a village and took all the people to a football field and beheaded them there.

“But they then started attacking villages in the north as well as the south. It was in the backs of all our heads that something could happen but we believed that 700 staff from the Mozambique military was more than adequate to deal with whatever did happen.

“The threat was to everybody. On March 24 was the first day of the attack. The direct attack on the village. I went to the site office. It was chaotic at the time. It was a very fluid situation so it was changing every 30 seconds or minute.”

RA International advised Phillip to remain at the hotel when it was able to communicate with him.