Mozambique: Justice Minister promises new documents for the displaced

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Justice Minister promises new documents for the displaced

3:41 CAT | 30 Nov 2020

Photo: O País

The Mozambican Minister of Justice, Helena Kida, has promised that the government will issue new birth certificates for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes by terrorist attacks in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Speaking to reporters at a meeting of her ministry’s Coordinating Council, held in the southern city of Maxixe, Kida said her Ministry has ascertained that at least 300,000 displaced people are in need of new identity documents. Many of them fled from their homes with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. Often their homes and all their possessions were set on fire and reduced to ashes.

Kida admitted that the figure of 300,000 could well be out of date. Speaking in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on 18 November Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario put the number of displaced at over half a million.

Kida, cited by the independent television station STV, insisted that her ministry would be able to issue larger numbers of documents, and within a matter of days the displaced will start receiving their new birth certificates.

She said this is a crucial step towards ensuring that the displaced can enjoy their rights as citizens. “Without a birth certificate, you can’t have an identity card”, she pointed out. “We want to give these people the right to have rights. These displaced people will receive plots of land, and without identification documents it will not be possible to register them”.

The drive to provide the displaced with birth certificates is part of a Ministry of Justice project entitled “Identity for All”, intended to guarantee the rights of the victims of terrorism.

Mobile brigades from the Ministry will visit the accommodation centres where many of the displaced are currently living, and will take down the details of their dates and places of birth, in order to issue the new certificates.

Source: AIM