Cabo Delgado: Public officials say it is unsafe to return to work in districts attacked by insurgents. – Listen

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Cabo Delgado: Public officials say it is unsafe to return to work in districts attacked by insurgents. – Listen

5:49 CAT | 04 Feb 2021

FILE PHOTO: For illustration purposes only. [File photo: AFP]

Hundreds of civil servants in districts targeted by terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado are protesting over the warnings issued by the authorities for “immediate return” to work places, arguing that there are no minimum-security conditions.

The majority/many of civil servants and their families have fled the insurgent attacks and are currently displaced in Pemba, the capital, in other districts further south of Cabo Delgado and in the neighbouring provinces of Nampula and Niassa.

After the district governments of Muidumbe and Ilha do Ibo issued warnings for the immediate resumption of public officials to their posts in 2020, under threat of being dismissed by the State, now it was Palma and Nangade turn to summon public officials, who fled the insurgent attacks.

The Palma call, which has been debated on social networks since last week, determines that “absences” will be marked and there will be implications for the “effectiveness” of employees who do not show up for work.

The deadline for submission was until January 20, but public officials say this is “absurd”, as there are no minimum-security conditions, proof of which is the occurrence of attacks in villages in the district and ambushes on roads where they must circulate to get to their jobs/workplace/ posts.

Palma threatened by insurgent invasion on Tuesday

“They still continue to destroy those villages around the town [of Palma], and the government is forcing us to go back to the district. Every day, they are singing around: ‘come back’, we are in bad shape”. But the truth is that there is no security,” a secondary education teacher told VOA.

Last week, the insurgents attacked a position of the border guard police in the village Mandimba (Nangade), with four casualties, and the group occupied the place for two days.

Also according to residents’ reports, insurgents continue to ambush vehicles frequently on the only stretch that links the district headquarters of Nangade to the village of Palma, the district of billionaire natural gas megaprojects.

“They started in Namioni, one group attacked Namioni and another group attacked Mandimba and two other villages, now they insist on us going back, how are we going to go back? ”asked another official.

“Since they entered Muidumbe last year, they are now in Muidumbe; they do not leave and have not left and no one can get them out,” said the official who stressed that the occupation of that district headquarters followed several notices for returning to jobs.

In January, the intensification of insurgent attacks on three villages close to the area where the natural gas project is being implemented, including the Afungi peninsula, forced the evacuation of workers from the French multinational Total, in the district of Palma.

The headquarters town of Palma, neighbouring Nangade, previously considered safe due to the significant presence of a special joint security force, was in January under threat of invasion by the rebels, who sent several pamphlets warning about the attack.

Source: VOA Portugues