Mozambique’s displaced feel anxious about 2017

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Mozambique’s displaced feel anxious about 2017

11:20 CAT | 03 Jan 2017

Cerca de seis mil pessoas estão alojadas em centenas de tendas distribuídas pelo Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades (INCG) em quatro centros de acomodação nos distritos de Gondola, Vanduzi, Mossurize e Báruè, em Moçambique, 20 outubro 2016. O número de deslocados, que fogem do conflito político-militar em Manica, centro de Moçambique, em busca de abrigos seguros, aumentou largamente. (ACOMPANHA TEXTO 23 OUTUBRO 2016). ANDRÉ CATUEIRA / LUSA

Lusa (File photo)

Internally Displaced Persons [IDPs] in the Vanduzi accommodation centre in Manica province say that the conflict in Mozambique has left them poorer and, after a “dry party” over Xmas and New year, they feel they’re heading for a 2017 full of uncertainties.

“I can not justify to the children, already affected by coming to the camp, how we are spending Christmas and New Year without our traditional meal and new clothes,” Wilson Bande told Lusa.

Some six thousand people are still living in tents put up by the National Institute for Disaster Management (INCG) in five accommodation centres in the districts of Gondola, Vanduzi, Guro, Mossurize, Báruè and Guro. They have fled violence between government forces and the armed wing of Renamo.

The IDPs bring reports of military violence in Chiuala and Honde (Báruè): the destruction of houses and barns, the looting of poultry and livestock, and the forcible quartering of government forces, as well as the persecution of local leaders and people linked to the ruling party by armed Renamo men.

In addition, they speak of the hunger and poverty waiting for them at the accommodation centres.

“What can we hope to have in 2017?,” asks Fatima Saide, pointing to children and women languishing on raffia bags between the tents, waiting for the only meal of the day, served in the late afternoon.

Antonio Fan reports that the news coming from his village is “discouraging”, and that everything he left behind has been taken by the military or opportunists.

Some go out to try to earn a little in backyards and some stay, complaining about inadequate Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties and the unlikelihood of them returning to their pre-war life in 2017.

“We do not known if we will return to our house, because there are people who have already been assigned plots to build on but are being discouraged from returning to areas of conflict,” Vailete Chiringa continues. With the help of the government, he is trying to start a farm in Vanduzi.

The number of displaced people changes frequently. Sometimes the camps are crowded and other times empty, although “no one who has entered has returned home” according to Almeida Teixeira, INGC representative in Manica.

Despite the complaints, Teixeira says the INGC supplied enough in December to allow the displaced to have decent parties.

“Food was distributed December. The displaced have food. We are now working to ensure there is a delivery in January. This will include rice donated by China and other partners,” he said.

The central region of the country has been the scene of ambushes on civilian and military targets that the authorities attribute to the armed wing of Renamo, which demands to govern in six provinces where it claims victory in the 2014 general elections.

Government and opposition forces have been involved in the clashes, while representatives of both sides have been negotiating in Maputo, although without issue as yet. A truce announced on 27 December by Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama as a “gesture of goodwill” was scheduled to end on Wednesday and has today been extended for 60 more days.

Source: Lusa