Mozambique: Security allows doctors to start returning to some areas in Cabo Delgado – DW

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Security allows doctors to start returning to some areas in Cabo Delgado – DW

3:30 CAT | 29 Mar 2022

File photo: DW

Mozambique’s Order of Physicians says that health professionals are returning to areas previously occupied by armed groups. The Governor of Cabo Delgado has urged young doctors not to be seduced by the insurgents’ promises.

Delegate of the Order of Physicians in Cabo Delgado, Mussa Ali, announced this Monday (28-03) the progressive return of health professionals to districts previously occupied by armed groups.

“Right now, in Palma, there are doctors: we have a surgeon and a general practitioner, and the same is true in Mocímboa da Praia and Macomia. We have personnel on standby, and there are also military doctors on the ground,” he said.

Mussa Ali was speaking in Pemba, the provincial capital, during a meeting with the Governor of Cabo Delgado, Valige Tauabo, on March 28, Mozambican Doctor’s Day.

The return of health personnel follows an “increase in security” in the districts concerned.

Governor warns of grooming

Governor Valige Tauabo welcomed the measure, but warned that young doctors should not allow themselves to be seduced by insurgent groups.

“Our young doctors have a responsibility to serve the population, not to serve terrorism,” he said, in allusion to the promises the rebels entice members of the public with, and with which the health professional “cannot align themselves”.

The conflict in Cabo Delgado province has already claimed about 4,000 lives since 2017, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and forced 784,000 people to abandon their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops with the support of Rwanda, later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has recovered some areas from the grip of the insurgents, but their flight has led to new attacks in other districts, used as passage or for temporary refuge.

Source: Deutsche Welle