Situated in north eastern Mozambique in the Sofala province , Beira is the country's second largest city with a population ranging from 350,000 to 500,000 people. It holds the regionally-significant Port of Beira which acts as a gateway for the interior as well as for land-locked Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.

Beira is also noteworthy as it was the core city for Renamo (The National Resistance of Mozambique) during the post-revolution Civil War (which ended only in 1994). Now that Renamo is a recognized national political party, Beira remains its core constituency.