1. Nampula In Crisis
Secretary of State for Nampula believes that the authorities are ready to prevent attacks in the province from escalated to the scale of the conflict in Cabo Delgado.
“Have no doubt, we are in a position to make this fight for every territorial part of our province,” Mety Gondola said in an interview with Lusa. At issue are attacks recorded in recent weeks in the far north of Nampula province. The raids of these groups, which will have crossed to the south of the Lurio River, Targeting the districts of Eráti and Memba, destroying infrastructure and leaving a hitherto unknown number of deaths, including an Italian nun killed during an attack on the Catholic mission in Chipende. According to preliminary data advanced by the Secretary of State of Nampula, in the district of Eráti alone, the new incursions caused close to 10,000 displaced people. Mety Gondola says troops are departing in “intensive actions” on the ground, in the ambition to prevent the conflict from growing.
The Archbishop of Nampula and President of Mozambique’s Episcopal Conference, for his part, warns of the risks of a humanitarian crisis with new waves of displaced people due to rebel attacks in the far north of that province. “It is a worsening of the crisis that was already experienced because of the war in Cabo Delgado. Now we have also displaced from the province of Nampula itself,” said Archbishop Inácio Saure. “For us, it’s a feeling of helplessness because in fact we already have many displaced persons from Cabo Delgado,” said the Archbishop of Nampula.
For the Archbishop of Nampula, policies and strategies for monitoring youth are essential to halt recruitment, preventing groups with obscure intentions from taking advantage of the vulnerability of these younger layers. “Youth must be cared for, educated and formed. On the other hand, it is necessary to defend this youth from the weaknesses that make it easily recruited”, he stressed.
Organizations face difficulties in assisting displaced people in Nampula, victims of attacks in northern Mozambique.
More and more victims of attacks are increasingly arriving in and around the city of Nampula, says Charles Artur, local head of the Episcopal Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Displaced Persons. The number of displaced people has increased since the last wave of attacks in August, not only in Cabo Delgado but also in the far north of
Nampula province, in the districts of Eráti and Memba. “The situation remains serious. In addition to the displaced people who came from the province of Cabo Delgado, with the new situation that occurred, we ended up receiving a greater number of displaced people who are not registered”, says Artur. He says that one of the main problems for organizations that support the displaced is that they work almost in the dark, not knowing exactly how many people should arrive. “We can’t control the displaced in our province, we don’t know where they are. Most of them are families, who crowd in one place and the authorities cannot identify whether they are displaced or not.” So far, according to Charles Artur, the lack of logistical and financial means has also made the work difficult. “First of all, the assistance is psychological. We try to involve these people in the work of the diocese itself and also give some humanitarian assistance, food and treadmill.” But help hasn’t come to everyone. “There are cases where girls end up prostituting themselves, to bring something into their homes. We have also reported cases of children who, at the age of 16, have already been married”, he says. It is estimated that half of the population affected by the insurgents’ attacks are children and young people up to the age of 20, a reflection of the country’s age pyramid.
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