Mozambique: Health workers threaten to intensify strike
File photo: MMO
The €100,000 donated by Pope Francis to support people displaced by violence in northern Mozambique will be used to build two health posts, which should begin to serve their health needs within two to three months.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, the bishop of Pemba, Luiz Fernando Lisboa, described the act of pastoral charity as a frequent gesture by the leader of the Catholic Church in the face of complicated situations around the world.
According to Luiz Fernando Lisboa, after conversations at the local level, it was concluded that the donation should be used to build “two health posts, one in Chiúre, the most populous district of Cabo Delgado, and the other in Montepuez”, in the southwest of the province, away from the attacks by rebels and one of the places of safety sought out by the fleeing IDPs.
After losing everything and hungry after long days of flight in the bush, health care is among the main needs of displaced families – half of them children.
“Certainly, as a tribute, we will name them after Pope Francisco” Luiz Fernando Lisboa said, explaining that there is already a design and a budget ready to go.
Everything ready for the start of works
The bishop of Pemba points out that support from mobilising figures such as Pope Francis is important in attracting more donations to Cabo Delgado, where humanitarian aid is no match for the scale of the crisis.
“If the war ended today, we would still need several years to rebuild” the social fabric of the province, he said.
Pope Francisco has been closely involved in the tragedy unfolding in northern Mozambique “for many months” and, on Easter Day, spoke directly to the humanitarian crisis.
After the Pope started talking about Cabo Delgado, “there was greater openness on the part of many groups, organisations and even several countries. I believe that his strong, emblematic figure gave this help to make this not only our crisis, but a crisis in which the whole world has to be responsible,” Bishop Lisboa said.
“We are all brothers, we are co-responsible for each other,” he stressed.
Cabo Delgado needs more support
The World Food Program (WFP) announced in November that it would have to reduce food support to Cabo Delgado as a result of underfunding, leading Bishop Lisboa to highlight the need to “intensify the campaign” in support of Cabo Delgado, “in order to obtain more aid”.
Armed violence in Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, is causing a humanitarian crisis with an estimated 2,000 killed and 500,000 displaced, without adequate housing or food, mainly to the area surrounding the provincial capital, Pemba.
The province, where Africa’s largest private investment, in natural gas, is ongoing, has been under attack by insurgents for three years, with some of the incursions, since 2019, claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
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