Mozambique: Cabo Delgado IDPs lack adequate support

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Mozambique: Cabo Delgado IDPs lack adequate support

2:32 CAT | 04 Sep 2020

Photo: DW

People displaced by attacks in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, complain that they are being let down by the authorities. The government institution in question rejects the charges.

Displaced victims of the armed attacks in Cabo Delgado province currently living in Nampula city are suffering shortages of food and adequate shelter. Residents at the Unidade Comunal Muthita say they have been deceived by government officials, and the support promised has never arrived.

A lack of reception centre places has meant that many of those displaced have had to seek shelter with private individuals, while others rent houses while trying to recover from the trauma of the attacks.

Gil Narciso Pedro, from Palma, told DW Africa that he has been living in a family residence in the Mutaunha neighbourhood with his five relatives since April.

Pedro says he was added to a list by the authorities in order to gain access to possible support, but never received anything. As soon as he arrived, he went to report to the local structures. “In this case, to our head of block [Chefe de Quarteirão]. He did the survey, visited the houses and took the list to the head of the neighbourhood [Secretário de Bairro]. From that day to this, we have had no support,” he relates.

Demoralised IDPs

Fernando Cornélio comes from Mocímboa da Praia and has been in Nampula since late March. “We were welcomed, but for those of us in the Mutauanha neighbourhood, there were major obstacles. Lately, we have become demoralised, because since May we have been suffering, without anyone important coming to visit us. We feel that we have been let down,” he told DW Africa.

Idpsdw.dw_ — *The World Food Program comes to the aid of the displaced*

Cornélio added that his relatives, also displaced, were living in a very precarious situation and needed special assistance. “One of my brothers is in a very bad way. His wife is pregnant and he already has one child, but he has no food at all and no money for rent. When he first came here, he had enough money for four months’ rent, but now that’s gone and they’re being evicted.”

Jeremias Cidela, secretary of the Unidade Comunal de Muthita, confirms that there was a promise of help from members of the provincial delegation of the National Institute of Social Action (INAS), and admits that dashed hopes have left the displaced discomfited.

Municipality does not have means to assist the displaced

To general relief, some foodstuffs from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) did arrive on Monday, August 21st, but only enough to last 15 days.

Inanampula.dw_ — *INAS acknowledges inadequacies*

Gil Narciso Pedro was among those receiving food aid, and was grateful, but says it is insufficient to feed his family of five. “According to the WFP, it is supposed to last 15 days. given that each is to receive five kilos of rice, half a litre of cooking oil and one kilogram of beans,” he said.

The National Institute of Social Action’s provincial delegate in Nampula, Assane Juma, denies that it has made false promises and says that it has supported the displaced , while however admitting that funds are limited.

“The number of refugees entering Nampula is very large,” he says. (Government figures puts the number of displaced accommodated across Nampula’s districts at just over 15,000.) Even though the INAS wants to help all of them, we are unable to match up to the scale of the problem.”

Source: Deutsche Welle